MSD distrubutor, iron or steel gear

[jae902]

I have a 302 roller cam engine from a 95 gt. I am running a carb setup on it, currently i have a msd ignition with a bronze gear. I know that the gear is wearing out. I also know that i should replace it with the steal one, but what about the iron one. Can i use an iron gear with this cam? The iron gear is 20 bucks, and the steal gear is 60 bucks. It looks like the old gear from the motor is iron, atleast i think.

 

[thehueypilot]

The steel cam will wear the iron gear out as well, just not as fast as the bronze. The iron particles will than slowly migrate into your oil. Not good! The steel gear is hardened and the iron gear is not. You can take a file to the steel gear and not remove any metal where as the file will take material off the iron gear. They do look identical but will wear totally different. If your gear wears to the point that it stops turning you will toast your engine! 60 bucks is cheap insurance!

 

[gp001]

Roller cam = steel or bronze gear
Bronze Gear = wears out real fast, not good for street use, when it goes you'll get a big boom out the exhaust (which may require a wardrobe change).

Steel gear is the way to go. Have a GOOD shop do it, or pay VERY CLOSE attention if you do it yourself. Measure MANY times before drilling the new hole as you only have 0.009" of tolerance for the gear placement. Do not use the existing hole

 

[jae902]

Can't i just take the old one off and put the new one on using the exsiting hole? Why do i need to drill a new hole, i can see drilling a new hole if the placement of the gear is higher or lower than the old one.

 

[gp001]

Chances are the holes will not line up. I've done several of these and they have never lined up. Keep in mind you only have 0.009" of tolerance for the gear placement. The link below is to the MSD instruction sheet

http://www.msdignition.com/pdf/gear_install_ford.pdf