Ford Racing 427W ate cam gear

[carmine]

I have a steel gear from MSD on my dizzy aswell and it looks exacly as you discribed. Satin black parkerized looking finish.

For your cam gear to wear like that it seams that it was way softer than the dizzy gear.

Makes me question if the cam was realy billet steel or somthing softer.
Or may be the dizzy gear was way harder than it was suppost to be.

To much cam end play or distributor and cam mesh to tight along with wrong materials.

[Luce]

I can see where the dizzy gear rides on the block, but it's no chewed up or anything. The bottom of the gear again is shiny where it mates with the block. The cam pulls the dizzy down, and the dizzy pushes the cam back in the block. The dizzy has some end play, but it was in spec of the depth measure so the clamp isn't forcing the gear down. Here's a pic of the gear.

The mesh location on the gear goes up and down as you go around. I think this is due to the chewing of the cam gear. But there is very little (in comparison) metal missing from thisw gear.

[DAVID GAGNARD]

A little off topic, but related........I just ordered a Ford factory distributor at the local O'Reilly's for a 1985 Mustang GT 302 engine, (last year of the carbed engines) to use on my 331 carbed engine.....I wanted one with the factory vacum advance on it and I'm tired of fighting rusted MSD distributors........
anyway, it does say it comes with a steel gear for a roller cam, which is what I need......

My question is: I don't trust this at all, is there anyway to tell the difference between a steel gear and a cast iron gear used on a hydraulic flat tappet cammed engine?????

Distributor should be in wensday morning........

David

[carmine]

Luce

The wear on the cam verses the distributor gear seams to point to the distributor gear being steel and the cam gear being cast iron

[carmine]

David

Should be able to tell by looking at it

Cast iron gear has rough cast finish on the un machined areas

Steel gear has machined finish on all surfaces

[DAVID GAGNARD]

Originally Posted by carmine

David

Should be able to tell by looking at it

Cast iron gear has rough cast finish on the un machined areas

Steel gear has machined finish on all surfaces

Thanks for the tip, I never really paid any attention to this....I have a distributor out of a 94 Mustang GT,factory roller cammed engine,the gear looks almost like new, I tried to take it off and save it, but it is either frozen on the shaft or welded on, I tried everything I know of and never got it to move even .00001 fo an inch,including heat form a torch!!!!!!!!!
I was going to use this distributor, but since my engine is a carbed engine and this distributor is for a computer controlled/fuel injection engine, the electronics will not work, hence the 1984/1985 style distributor for the factory carbed cars......
the computer at O'Reilly's says it comes with a steel gear,I just don't trust any parts place anymore with this kind of info,things change all the time and they rarely update their computers to these changes.......

I'll compare it to the one I already have when the new one gets here in a few days.....
Thanks again:
David

[Luce]

Honestly, I have one of the first Ford 427w's. At the time, the PDF instructions were not yet available. I read around and thought that all roller cams were steel. My engine may not have had a steel cam. I never saw anything specifically saying use a steel gear until way after I had already installed one and didn't look back. I saw the PDF saying use a steel gear well after I had mine installed.

Brent has hooked me up with replacement parts and now it's just a waiting game. I'm hoping I get the stuff before this weekend, but not counting on it. It'll be a PITA, but it will clear up a lot of issues that were making me question things I know as fact and making wilder and wilder theories to explain the troubles I was having. I'm happy knowing what the problem is so I can fix it.