[DeTomaso] Finally...composite 351C dist. gears !

[David Nunn]

I just received a brand new composite distributor gear from Tri-Tec
Motorsports. As far as I know, Tri-Tec makes the composite dist. gears for
all of the NASCAR engine builders, as well as for Comp Cams, Howard Cams,
etc. The gear I received is one from their first production run, which took
place about a year ago. All except one of the gears (mine) from that initial
batch were used for durability testing. During this past year of testing,
they haven't had a single failure or problem. Even people who had been
"eating" bronze gears were having no problems. Accordingly, they're ready to
do a production run of gears that will be available for sale shortly, but
Tri-Tec will be the only source for the time being. Comp Cams, Ford SVO,
Jeg's, Summit, etc, won't have them for a while. The gears aren't slated
into their production schedule just yet but it's imminent. They'll be listed
on Tri-Tec's web site the second they're available
(http://www.tritecmotorsports.com/Carbon_Ultra-Poly-Ford_Distributor_Gears.h
tm).

 

You're probably wondering how I managed to get Tri-Tec to let me have one.
Well, when Tri-Tec first decided to make a dist. gear for the 351C/460, they
went out and bought a bunch of gears to take dimensions from. These gears
came from most of the major dist. gear manufacturers.  They were amazed to
find that some of the gears had dimensions that were slightly different than
others. This disturbed them greatly because they had no way of knowing which
dimensions were correct. They contacted Ford but were told the original
parts drawings for engines of that era were long gone. At that point,
Tri-Tec decided to shelve the 351C/460 dist. gear project. 

 

I happened to be speaking with Bill Price (Price Motorsports) one day and he
was telling me about a batch of gears "a manufacturer" had produced with too
large a dist. shaft hole. I then mentioned Tri-Tec's experience, to which
Bill replied: "I'll bet I know where those original drawings are". The story
he told me was that Ford was in the process of clearing space in the
archives and were about to shred a bunch of old drawings. A long time Ford
employee, knowing it was a huge mistake, grabbed them and took them home
(with Ford's blessing). Bill told me to have Tri-Tec call him and he'd
arrange to get the original 351C/460 dist. gear drawing sent to them (which
he ultimately did). Naturally, I asked Tri-Tec which gears from the other
manufacturers were the correct dimensions and which were not, but they
wouldn't tell me! 

 

So, when I called Tri-Tec to get a composite 351C gear, miraculously, they
found one for me. They said they were happy to oblige as they felt indebted
to me for putting them together with Bill Price. They wouldn't even let me
pay for it !