Sinter timing gear question

[jeff323]

I recently purchased a 1982 323i and took the front of the engine apart to replace the old timing belt and seals since they are very old at this point. When I took it apart I learned that it has the old stamped timing gears and it was never upgraded to the newer cast Sinter style gears. I was never aware there was an update or an issue with the old style gears until now, but I am having a hard time locating the gears and the necessary hardware to upgrade from the original parts. Is this something I should even be worrying about? Am I making a big deal about nothing?

[JDB]

I have not witnessed a failure of stamped gears in my years of BMW repair but that being said I used E30 325i cast gears after a failure of the aftermarket aluminum adjustable gear I had used!!
Do you have access to any E30 used parts??

Jeff

[jeff323]

Not really, but I think I may have gotten most of what I need either new or through ebay...we'll see. Realoem makes it a little confusing about what is needed to do the upgrade. A few people have told me it took them a while to source all the parts as well and there was some trial and error to get it all right.

[cgifool]

Is it not just the timing gear?

[Clio320i]

Part number 16 here: https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho...diagId=11_0374

FCP has it: https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw...ne-11311717398

We replaced ours in our E30 325i as part of the whole timing belt job documented over in the E30 section. 82eye spotted said stamped gear and recommended we replace it. Wasn't hard and gave peace of mind even though one local mechanic said he didn't think it was any big deal. For $35 I'd rather not be worrying about such a thing.

Of note: it was somewhat confusing to determine correct alignment of new gear. It has some sort of centering hole or divot or something, can't quite recall, but it is not functional as a key-type centering hole would be. So we ended up just bolting it on with the existing bolts; there seems to be no need for specific alignment. We did make an additional trip into the timing belt after the initial install to get the belt adjusted properly so it stayed centered on the upper timing (cam) gear and then another time to back the tension off a bit because it was making a disconcerting sound. I think install of the sintered lower gear was a third trip. Both of those adjustment issues seem sort of unusual and idk why we had such a hard time with it. Probably because we'd never done it before lol.