Camshaft/crankshaft sense

[Tom Cloud]

>You could monitor cam/crank that way, by watching the rotation, however if 
>your only concern is belt failure, you could easily mount a photo 
>transistor (or four?) on the outside of the belt, and put one small light 
>bulb in the center.  Actually, scratch that, an incandescent lamp is going 
>to burn out too often.  A solid state device might work well, since there 
>is no oil in under the timing cover that I know of.

this has probably already been discussed, but has anyone
put a hall or coil sensor on the cam gear -- and removed
a tooth for synchronization ??   talking specifically about
Ford V-8, but can't see why GM or others wouldn't work as
well -- as long as they had a ferrous cam gear.  The pickup
used in the DuraSpark distributor might work as the teeth
in that dist are only a little further apart than the
teeth on the cam gear.  Any thoughts on the consequences
of removing a tooth from the cam gear ???

Tom Cloud <cloud at peaches.ph.utexas.edu>