pesky Camshaft problems

[andrew honychurch]

Guys, small nightmare with the engine build! When I picked up my engine some while ago from the guy who did my valves , I noticed that the bolts and tabs that hold the camshaft gear to the camshaft were loose. I asked him if he had taken the gear off and if so why. He said he thought he had to , but had never gone any further and just knock the tabs back . So I have now rebuild the motor, its sitting in the Carrier and hey presto, I have no compression. Clearly the camshaft to crankshaft timing is way off. So i have stripped the front timing cover off, and taken the camgear off the camshaft and guess what? I cannot see any way of getting the timing gear, ( an alloy one) on the camshaft in the correct one of 4 different positions. To make matters worse, there are two filed marks on the front of the timing gear . Only one is meant to line up with the crankshaft mark. I am pretty upset about this, what a cock up. Anyway, the front of the camshaft flange has a keyway cut in it, which I would have thought was to correspond to a male lug on the back of the camshaft timing gear, but thats not there at all. Can anyone shed some light on this. Is there something I am missing, is there another way you know where the cam gear fits to the camshaft???? Help............