So i was reading through the old archives for the past hour trying to find a method of setting the timing of the timing gears because mine have no real marks on them. i noticed a mark on the cam gear but nothing relating to it on the crankshaft gear (i thought i read in the past that there was a mark in it too but mine must have worn off)
Then i saw this http://www.mtfca.com/cgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?tpc=80257&post=161258#POST161258 . For a while i wondered why i could not guess where the gears should be because the intake valves always opened and closed late when i htough i had guessed the rest of the timing correctly. Can anyone confirm this?
And will it be easy to take the cover off and remove the timing gear nut later if the engine does not run properly?
Thankyou in advance for any advice recieved

There should be a mark (mine has an "o") punched into the male tooth of the small crankshaft gear and a mark (again, mine has an "o") punched into the corresponding female groove (between the two teeth) of the large cam gear. Match these two marks up and your timing is automatically set. I have never heard of one of these gears not being marked with these crucial marks, but I suppose it is possible. Jim Patrick

If you bring the piston up to TDC on the non firing stroke, turn the camshaft until the exhaust valve and the intake valve are at the same height. This is called split overlap. Mesh the gears now, and your timing is correct.

Ok i tried that. My valves are not open at the same time though, Too much clearance i guess

Do you have the crank gear on the wrong way?

We set them using a degree wheel and a dial indicator if the engine is still on the stand. Not something you can do in the car.

Not sure if the crank'gear is the right way, it was on the crank' for years. Marks on the engine show tha the crank' has had too much end float (or whatever they call it) and the timing mark wore off against the gear cover. i'll just put it together like Kent Greenhalgh said and see if it works

I just looked at my engine on the stand to see where the timing mark is on the crank gear. Looking at the crank gear, the crankshaft keyway is centered on a groove, not a tooth. The first tooth to the right of that groove is the one with the mark.

Thanks Tom

Kim,
I just looked at an old crank gear and it didn't have any marks on it either.
Here is a picture of how the cam gear sits in relation to the keyway slot in the crank. The mark on the cam gear is just to the right of the keyway.

My 1918 Touring had them marked with an "o" and "Ford 2".

You cannot use split overlap to time a stock Model T cam, because the correct timing is retarded 6.5 degrees from that position (almost half a tooth). If you cannot find a mark, then you can set it with a dial indicator and degree wheel. You can do this even with the engine in the car. You should set the intake center line at 122 degrees ATDC.
For Model T cam info see:
http://clubs.hemmings.com/clubsites/MTFCTulsa/Cams
For a desription of degreeing a cam see:
http://www.tildentechnologies.com/Technical/Tip_DegreeCam.html
There used to be a downloadable degree wheel on the internet.

I've seen gears that had a small Ford script in place of the more common dot, or center punch mark.

Really, while it appears that the keyway lines up with a tooth space, it actually DOES line up with a tooth. Since the gear is helical, the point of alignment bewteen the gear tooth and the keyway lies at a point at half the thickness of the gear. Looking at the tooth, as it appears on the end face of the gear, is not the technique for timing helical gears.

So, in other words. If you ground away the gear so it was only half as thick as it is now, the tooth would line up with the keyway at the new end face.