Have read conflicting information on whether the 96 Bronco 302 has a nylon timing gear. I have one with 125K on it. A friend said he had one and it stripped and had to be towed. Others say they are metal and to leave them alone. Who knows? I have even heard that the gear is metal and has a nylon coating... ?? What the hay? Does anyone really have a definitive answer? Thanks, Terry
According to the FORD parts site below, it SHOULD be an all-metal one. (part# F4TZ-6256-B)
Genuine OEM Ford Parts Online - Camshaft Gear - Ford Part # F4TZ-6256-B - Shop Discount OEM Ford Parts & Ford Accessories Direct Online At Discount Pricing.
www.oemfordpart.com
But nothing is certain, and nylon-toothed gears
were used on a LOT of 302 engines over the years. Do you know positively if that's the original engine, or if its been worked on? If you want to be
sure what you have, the only way is to go in and look.
The nylon ones
are quieter once the chain starts to stretch, often
wear less than metal ones, and are more forgiving of a less-than-ideal oil supply, but can suffer
embrittlement from age and chemical exposure, which can lead to catastrophic failure as your friend mentioned.
Yours has 26 years on it if original....
More info if you care to read on.
Both the nylon and all metal gears will work perfectly fine for extended periods of time, and they WERE both used on the same engines, at different times, depending on intended use. HOWEVER, if there happened to be a parts delay at the engine building facility the "wrong" one for your year COULD be in there from the factory. OR someone ahead of you may have swapped in an aftermarket gear set.
Ford also used a funky-looking timing chain with the inner side "open" on a lot of engines for a lot of years with BOTH the nylon tooth cam gear and the all metal one.
(I remember seeing a nylon tooth cam gear as far back as the early 70's- on a 1967 289 engine that I had to replace with a rebuilt short block.)
If this was mine and I was going in the engine to look, and I found the nylon-tooth cam gear in there, no matter how good the parts looked, I'd opt to swap in a double roller-type chain and all-metal gears, and put in a new water pump at the same time.
SOME chain sets (like those on the 1996 Bronco 5.0L page below) have a crank gear with 3 keyways so timing can be advanced or delayed by a few degrees between the cam and crank, LUCKILY 302/5.0L parts are readily available and usually inexpensive (depending on where you buy).
This is, unless you opt for
extreme performance parts.
With enough in the budget you could even go with a gear to gear setup, with no chain to stretch.
RockAuto ships auto parts and body parts from over 300 manufacturers to customers' doors worldwide, all at warehouse prices. Easy to use parts catalog.
www.rockauto.com
