Ed- I think the confusion on gear types revolves around the distributor that you use and not so much the gear itself. Anything that rotates (in this case a distrib.) will have harmonics and the bearings and such vary in quality. So you want to use a gear that is the most forgiving for the distrib. that you use. A MSD is a example of a high quality piece that has little slop and as such will take anything you put on the shaft as long as it is hardened. On the low end is factory stuff with lots of stock production slop so in this case the soft bronze gear is the right thing. I've allways used bronze, as I stated above, even on high quality distribs. knowing full well that they wear out quick.
The hardend gears sold will last longer for sure, but I don't think they are very good for "loose" distributors. It's about choices and knowing what you want to do. The reasoning I use is the MSD distrib. that I use has less harmonics(tighter) than most stuff out there and this helps the bronze gear last longer to! Anyhow, I am reading Toms post as a distrib. failure.
I think the reason the cam folks are so ambiguous is they don't know what distrib. you are using or the shape its in, so they tend to give a lot of lead-way.
cobrashoch
