Great story Shark, I have run into similar problems before. At 77k you original timing chain was probably trashed. Did you check to see if it had jumped before disassembly by chance? Maybe you should start a new thread about your car with some current pictures. We'll motivate you!

 

Mine is almost as brittle as glass. You can just tap it with a hammer and it'll sometimes flake off of chunk.

 

Guess I can stop feeling so bad about my situation! It looks like every C3 with the covers has either already had them done, or needs to have them done, no in-betweens where the originals are surviving just fine!

 

You're probably right. As far as the timing chain goes, that's another sore subject. Just outside the 12 month/12,000 mile warranty, I had taken it out to warm it up to change the oil. On the way back just as I was about ready to shift from second to third, it got very quiet and sounded like somebody had just turned the release valve on a large air compressor. Long story short, a tooth has broken off the lower, powdered metal crank gear and carried in the chain up to the cam gear. That forced the timing chain out against the timing chain cover which then caused it to come to a complete stop which then sheared the rest of the teeth off of the crank gear. I'll save what my suspected cause was of that for a later thread. Luckily it only bent one valve. I put it back together with both a steel crank gear and steel cam gear and utilized a roller timing chain. The timing chain when I tore it down was still pretty tight.

 

Man, that would suck. I have never liked the old link belt chains. Still, it's time to pull the cover off and give us some pictures. A one owner '73, can't wait to see it!

 

I've been told that the link belt was much quieter than the roller chain. Probably the same reason that they put a nylon cap on the gear teeth for the cam gear. I can confirm that a roller chain with steel gears is a little bit noisier. But with factory side exhaust or Hooker nest-of-snakes side exhaust, you cannot hear it. 🙂

 

Orange Crush

Yellow Beast and stablemate

 

• I considered using the Tru-Flex bumper cover when I was needing to replace mine but when I noticed that the description included the words "Some adjustment for proper fit is necessary." Since I had mine off and put back on once when I repainted the car, I knew that putting a new one on would be no problem. I don't know what a new urethane NOS bumper cover would cost these days but I suspect it's very expensive. An aftermarket urethane cover will probably be cheaper if it's available and the Tru-Flex would be also.

 

You must have been a stripper when you were younger Shark, that's a helluva tease!

 

I'll try to find some earlier pictures.