My 440 died yesterday, and I would like to avoid throwing parts at it
I was able to verify that the problem was the timing gear and chain by rocking the crankshaft back and forth. There was a lot of lost motion in the distributor shaft.
I am going to clean up the front of the engine before pulling the front cover. When I do pull it, I'll take pictures of the 40-y.o. timing gear and chain and share them with you.
It was pretty hard to get the harmonic balancer to break loose, but I finally did. However, I the pulleys don't want to come off of the balancer easily, and I don't want to bend them.
How do you separate the pulleys from the harmonic balancer on a 440?
Let me know if you need to see pictures of the pulleys and balancer.
Thanks again for all the advice, FABO!