The Project Pad

While at Carlisle my 7a was making a screeching noise on startup, the general thinking from the a more finely tuned ear than mine was the starter bendix was hanging up.
I drove home without issue, unpacked and headed out for lunch. A few miles down the road it simply died, codes said distributor basic timing.
I called a flat bed and took it home, after poking around for much to long i found that the distributor gear was all torn up.
Not sure if the damaged gear was caused by the hold down not tightened down or a lack of lubrication.
The hold down was loose enough to allow the distributor to be turned by hand (with some force)

Thanks,Jack

The gear itself is lubricated by the oil in the valve cover area. I wouldn't think lack of lubrication caused that. They are known for failing and metal replacements are available for them. I would just chalk it up to a failed gear (design flaw).

loxxrider wrote: They are known for failing and metal replacements are available for them. I would just chalk it up to a failed gear (design flaw).

It was brass 034 gear that I installed, I'm wondering end play or the loose distributor clamp contributed to the failure.

How many miles?

Brass/bronze distributor gears are used all the time on roller cam conversions on pushrod engines, they are not a forever item, they are a regular maintenance item, but it is better that a little gear dies after a while than an expensive camshaft dies rapidly. (Roller cams are steel, flat-tappet are iron, normally the gears are iron, iron on iron is happy, iron on steel is galling death)

so where do we get good gears that are not brass?

Noisy Cricket wrote:How many miles?

I've had the car just over two years, it's not my daily driver, I estimate I've put at most 10,000 miles on the brass 034 gear.

Jack