Cascade Crew

IROCDave

I am starting to get the itch to get my car back on the road and havent done much research as to what went wrong other than the cam had a hardened steel distributor gear on it. The last cam I ran had a pressed on cast iron gear and didnt show any signs of wear when I pulled it.

The distributor shaft is also bent, not sure if that is do to the teeth being whiped out or?

Anyhow, the question is - did stock TPI roller cams use a pressed on distributor gear? IIRC, yes, but havent given it much thought.

I'm considering buying a used distributor and putting a softer gear on it so I can atleast move the car around in the garage.

chevymad · Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 5:04 pm Post subject:

Ya, you can change the gear to whatever you want. It's an odd size shaft though. Can't remember exactly. Maybe Mike will post up, he ground up a few before things calmed down in his motor. With the steel cam gear I think you need either bronze or one of the new poly gears. I know there is a huge difference in the brand of bronze gear too. Some are complete crap. I remember reading which ones work on the team chevelle website.

Twilightoptics · Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 8:01 pm Post subject:

I don't remember being able to change out gears on the cam. Just on the dizzy.

chevymad · Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 8:10 pm Post subject:

Hmm. .maybe I read that wrong. Stock roller cams arent made from billet steel. So no they dont have a cast gear pressed on the end. Alot of comp rollers arent billet either, i've seen pics of some comp rollers actually going flat because they're too soft!

IROCDave · Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2012 11:48 am Post subject:

I guess what I am asking is two fold. The cam I put in the engine destroyed the distributor gear on my plug and play MSD pro billet distributor. I ran the same distributor for 10K miles with a different aftermarket cam with no issues.
Less than 1K on the new cam and the gears are gone on the same distributor. When I ordered the old cam I remember mentioning that the distributor had a hardened steel gear. I thought they pressed on a cast iron gear becuase the cam was billet steel. When I ordered the new cam I told them the same thing but the cam card didnt mention a pressed on gear?

I am just trying to figure out the next step to get it running again. I'm not even sure it's as simple as cam gear versus distributor gear material. My brother loaned me a boroscope and the cam gear teeth are a little chewed up also.

I would like to just get it running again. When I have time, I will to pull the motor and check bearring clearences etc.

I just dont wont to drop in another distributor and have the same problem. So, the question is, can I drop in a stock dizzy / gear and be fine or do I need to change the dizzy gear to a phenolic / brass gear?

Twilightoptics · Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2012 1:48 pm Post subject:

If it's not a factory cam(aftermarket), run the aftermarket softer gear and you are okay and it becomes a minor maintenance part (consumable).

If it's a stock cam (Not factory aftermarket like LT4 hotcam) then you can get an OEM gear and put it on your dizzy and run it.

Gears are held in with a roll pin and slide off usually pretty easily.

chevymad · Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2012 4:50 pm Post subject:

If its a billet cam gear then you need the soft gear. And as Paul said that becomes a consumable part. You'll need to check it every so often and replace when its worn. If you have a high volume oil pump this can happen more often too.

chevymad · Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2012 9:05 pm Post subject:

Morel gears are recommended by a machinist who seems to really know his stuff. Someone else said they're having great luck with lunati's everwear gear. MSD is one that is known to make bad gears now. Sad

IROCDave · Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 6:00 pm Post subject:

Anyone local have a stock distributor they wont to sell?

Twilightoptics · Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 11:11 pm Post subject:

Stock from a roller motor motor I assume? I've not read if the large cap oem gears are from the same material or not.

IROCDave · Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2012 6:47 pm Post subject:

Yes, stock small cap, 87 up. The shaft on my MSD pro billet is bent so I would like to pick up a stocker and just swap gears for now. . Just want to get it running again, new distributor will come later.

Twilightoptics · Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2012 9:58 am Post subject:

I don't know that the shaft of a stocker will work.

And I thought your msd gear was toast?