Thread: Worn Distributor Gear

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I found some excessive wear and scoring on my distributor gear when I pulled my distributor today. I do not know what caused it. I replaced it with one I Pick-n-Pulled and will pull the distributor frequently to try and get an idea of the rate of wear as well as the severity of it. The cam drive gear appeared to have some damage, but isn't that bad. I don't really have the money to replace the cam right now. In the future, I may drop the oil pan and if the cam gear is only rough and not severely worn, I will use some lapping compound to match a gear to it and polish the surface. Any ideas on what may have caused the damage in the first place? The distributor shaft is straight and turns free, the vertical alignment of the gear is fine, the oil pump is a high pressure (60psi), standard volume pump and spins free.

Originally Posted by 76GMC1500

I found some excessive wear and scoring on my distributor gear when I pulled my distributor today. I do not know what caused it. I replaced it with one I Pick-n-Pulled and will pull the distributor frequently to try and get an idea of the rate of wear as well as the severity of it. The cam drive gear appeared to have some damage, but isn't that bad. I don't really have the money to replace the cam right now. In the future, I may drop the oil pan and if the cam gear is only rough and not severely worn, I will use some lapping compound to match a gear to it and polish the surface. Any ideas on what may have caused the damage in the first place? The distributor shaft is straight and turns free, the vertical alignment of the gear is fine, the oil pump is a high pressure (60psi), standard volume pump and spins free.

That really does not look that bad.
When the gears start to get "knife-edged" that is when it is really bad.

Just the usual wear for them there engines who have their distributors on the wrong end of the engine!!!!! We had a discussion about this the other night at the races.... Think the closer proximity of a Ford distributor to the timing chain and gears vs a chebby or other gm has a whole lot to do with maintining timing accuracy????? Curious what others thought about it...

I know I wouldn't have changed it. Unless your came is made of rubber I can't see what differance it makes where the distributor is. About the only thing I've ever witnest is the oil pump going bad and turning the distributor out of time.

What was your orignal reason for pulling it???

Originally Posted by Dave Severson

Just the usual wear for them there engines who have their distributors on the wrong end of the engine!!!!! We had a discussion about this the other night at the races.... Think the closer proximity of a Ford distributor to the timing chain and gears vs a chebby or other gm has a whole lot to do with maintining timing accuracy????? Curious what others thought about it...

Dave,Dave, are you trying to start things again?
Everyone knows most of the inacurate cam timing is due to timing chain stretch rather than distributor location.

Yeah, but it's a long drive back from Huron on Tuesday night for the special Late Model show....... Had to talk about something just to stay awake!!!!

Now if I could just find a super good sponsor we could set this Super Stocker up with some killer horsepower/.//////..????

dist down to far or up in the block a hv oil pump . not the right gear for cam iron.stock cam s . iron melonited gm steel roller cam .and bronze gears steel rollers cams. bad block from gm .timing gear set holding cam out of the block .cam gear not in the right spot .did look at the gear that is normal wear but could go down a bit more but would not help much

Originally Posted by Dave Severson

Yeah, but it's a long drive back from Huron on Tuesday night for the special Late Model show....... Had to talk about something just to stay awake!!!!

Now if I could just find a super good sponsor we could set this Super Stocker up with some killer horsepower/.//////..????

the chevys keep you up dave ? it amazing that them damn dist are not right but they still run?so if it was in the front and was ford blue it would run much better

My policy on distributor location is that modern engines should have the distributor in the rear. The distributors on modern engines with electronic igniton are almost no maintenance. Therefore, it is ok to put the distributor in the back where it is a little harder to access to make it easier to access everything else on the front of th engine that more frequently needs maintenance.

How many modern cars still run a distributor?

Where is the wear of concern in the picture, exactly?

I couldn't get a good picture without glare, but if you look on the right side you can see the contact patch is very wide. There was some scoring and what really concerned me is that you could see where a low spot was forming where the wear was occuring.

By modern, I meant mid-70's + when Chrysler and GM came out with their first breakerless ignitions.

you will have a wide contact patch with helical gear that is the way it works. . i would like to see it deep on the tooth root hi contact pach like you have. then hi on the face flank and taking off the teeth and more back lash.

Originally Posted by pat mccarthy

the chevys keep you up dave ? it amazing that them damn dist are not right but they still run?so if it was in the front and was ford blue it would run much better

Heck yes!!! Probably good for at least another 150 horse!!!!!