[DeTomaso] distributor gear

[Mikael]

With all the detailed input, my head is spinning. My conclusion for myself
is that since I have a cam of unknown origin, I would be a very brave man to
use anything else than bronze and cruise around Europe this summer. I'm not
that brave. I'll bring an extra bronze gear though.

It still puzzles me why this is a problem for the aftermarket, when
apparently the factories has it sorted, never heard of this issue for a
stock cam/gear.

Thanks for input

Mikael
-----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
Fra: JDeRyke at aol.com [mailto:JDeRyke at aol.com] 
Sendt: 13. april 2012 10:05
Til: will.kooiman at gmail.com; detomaso at realbig.com
Emne: Re: [DeTomaso] distributor gear

In a message dated 4/12/12 7:51:48 PM, will.kooiman at gmail.com writes:

> This metallurgy discussion only applies to roller cams, right?
> I've always assumed that I didn't have to worry about the dist gear 
> material with my flat tappet cam (CompCams).
> 
I agree with Dan. Regardless of the cam being run, the only real 'safe' 
setup with a 351-C is to minimize the loads the oil pump applies to the cam
gear and the one in its mesh on the bottom of the distributor shaft. The
distributor load is trivial; its all pump load. And there are three failure
points: the distributor gear pin, the oil pump driveshaft and finally the
gear teeth themselves. The first two are simple to fix; there is no perfect
fix (so
far) for #3. 
To cloud the mix further, occasionally, an aftermarket cam of any kind will
get its integral gear cut at the wrong pressure-angle; with such a cam, any
gear may last only 5 miles. Yes- it's happened. My 2¢- J Deryke