Cam followers

[Brian]

Here's a question for all you UK residents. I need a set of cam followers, who has good quality ones at a fair price ?

I have searched on the net and most dealers have them but I dont want to get caught with a set of poor quality ones. SRM have them of course but at 100 quid. Theirs are probably quality items but seem a bit dear compared to some of the others. I know you get what you pay for so may well get the SRM ones but I thought I would ask the forum members first as someone may have bought a set recently.

[manosound]

I, too, will be interested in hearing the knowledgable answer to this. I would I have thought that available cam followers would be limited to used, NOS or new SRM. Would there really be more than one group making these new?

Richard L.

[MG]

There are newly manufactured cam followers around, supplied by MCA like most of the other stuff. I bought a set some time ago and I wrote about my experience with them here:
http://www.audioworld.net/BSA/forum/index.php/topic,2160.0.html (post no. 4)
Have to add that I was not overly impressed by the manufacturing tolerances and quality either. I spent a few hours refacing and polishing the set just to find out that one of them was not usable in the end.

What I do now, instead of spending a small fortune on the SRM ones (which for sure are very high quality), is regrinding and rehardening the used ones. This can be done with any used follower if it is not damaged or very badly worn, so that it will end up being too short after regrinding.

I see yet another problem with the SRM followers:
These are stellite tipped and matched to SRMs very own camshafts, which imho makes them too hard for using with the original cams, possibly leading to an increase of wear on the lobes.

Cheers, Markus

[trevinoz]

Brian,
             What type?
Long stroke or other?
I bought a set of N.O.S. long stroke followers from C&D a few years ago at a reasonable price.
The later ones I had reground and hardened.
Trev.

[Brian]

The later type Trev. I have a spare set of new ones for the longstroke A7. (bought them off evil bay a couple of years ago for $10 ! )

I actually need two sets but I have four reasonable ones that can be reground for one engine but need a new set for the other. There seem to be a few dealers who can supply these and I have e-mailed a couple asking where they are made and they replied "in England" which may mean they are SRM ones.

At the moment our $ is good against the Euro and I can get a set of "UK made" ones from British Only in Austria for 88 Euro which is about $127.

[MG]

Brian,

I bought the camshaft for the A7SS (a 67-356) from British Only Austria and back then Mark (the CEO of BOA) also showed me the followers he's selling.
They looked very reasonable to me, manufactured with far higher accuracy than the ones I had bought elsewhere, they seem to be nitrogen hardened considering the colour. He told me the manufacturer was the same for both the cams and the followers, so I think they should be ok (btw, the cam I bought had a hardness of 53 HRC, which is fair enough)

Cheers, Markus

[Brian]

Thanks for that Marcus, I feel reasonably confident that those ones will be ok so will order a set.

[Brian]

The cam followers turned up today and I am very happy with them. Time will tell ultimately but they look good and fitted perfectly. Visually they look every bit as good as originals.

[muskrat]

G'day Brian, that's not bad, 2 weeks from BOA to down under. How much landed and are they for long or short stroke ?
Cheers

[Brian]

There the later type (short stroke) for all A7/10's. Cost me $120.00 total. Pretty good service and they seem very good.

[muskrat]

Thanks Brian, looks like they have another customer.
Cheers