Cam Gear Puller

The cam gears on the L10/M11 Cummins diesel engines are thermally shrunk fit onto the camshafts.  The tight fit ensures that the gears do not slip on the shafts and mess up the timing, but it makes it very difficult to remove the gears after they have cooled.  A regular gear puller would not fit around the outside edge of the gear on the partially assembled engine, so I designed this little pneumatic gear puller in Pro Engineer and had it made for the assembly line mechanics.  The four grippers in the front of the puller slip into the holes in the gear and, with a twist, lock tightly onto the gear web.  The pneumatic ram then pushes agaisnt the end of the shaft and pulls the gear free.  I was extremely impressed with how it turned out and now there are quite a few of these things floating around the Jamestown Engine Plant.