Crazy Distributor Gear Wear

[daman1]

Got mine from NAPA....$45

[Red Devil]

I've had 4 or 5 distributors come out of holes with wear into the teeth of the gear. Seems like a semi-common problem. :shrug:

[mudbuddy]

Originally Posted by Pauly

My dizzy gear was worn worse that that one, mine was on the verge of breaking.
The only indicator on my truck was that it would pop slightly when at cruise speed, felt like a miss.
There is a distributer mod that allows more oil to fall onto the cam gear. Insufficient oiling, bad design/manufacturing of teh dizzy gear can all come into play.
Why it didnt show symptoms 1st, i really dont know.

The good thing about this whole situation is that the camshaft is made from induction hardened steel, so the roller lifters wont gall into the lobes of the cam. Since teh cam gear is so hard, a special dizzy gear made from softer melonized metal. The idea is to have the dizzy gear wear instead of the camshaft gear(for obvious reasons).

this is an EXCELLENT billet replacement dizzy for the 96-02 Vortec 305,350 and 454.

http://www.jegs.com/i/Accel/110/60116/10002/-1
more info on teh Billitech dizzy
http://www.pacificp.com/forum/viewto...r+oiling#26482

You are supposed to be able to grind in vertical grooves into the dizzy to alow for better dizzy gear oiling.

peace
PAuly

you guys on here kill me calling it a dizzy gear are you going to start calling tires oreos after all they are both round and black LMAO

[Red Devil]

Wha? It's been called a dizzy since before I was born, what are you talking about?!?

[rob]

I know with LT1's a few of my buddie's had problems wearing out the oil pump drive gear (looks the same, only know distributor hooked to it)
the GMPP "hot cam) that they all were using was a hardened steel cam, and harded steel gear, obviously) so they ran in to oil pressure drop issues and found that as the culprit.

I'm running a comp roller in my LT1, and have yet to have problems with it, after 15k miles of driving (the other guys were experiencing problems within 4k to 5k) it still looks fine.

[mudbuddy]

Originally Posted by Red Devil

Wha? It's been called a dizzy since before I was born, what are you talking about?!?

I started workin in a caddy olds dealership in 73 at 18 years old as a mechanic and have raised 3 kids as a fleet tech currently at the same job 28 years and never heard it till I found this site

[DennisTA15]

The dizzy fo shizzy my nizzy

A couple of my Mopar buddies use the dizzy term.

[mudbuddy]

lol good one dennis

[Red Devil]

Must be a regional thing. I heard that term when I was growing up and I'm pushing towards two score in years.

[daman1]

Never heard of the term either till i joined this site

[Red Devil]

Grew up in the north east, to clarify.

[Fishnfergie]

I finally got a hold of that gear, no one around me had one. I was wondering what the easiest way to take the old pin out I cant seem to get it out and was looking for tips.

[mudbuddy]

use a small drift and drive it out

[Pauly]

I call it a dizzy because I get tired of typing distributer out over and over. I have to come up with abreviations because I constantly repeat the same info over and over.

peace
Pauly

[DennisTA15]

Well, I replaced my dizzy yesterday with the billet Accel dist. I don't have it running yet because I had to order some plug wires (my #1 was a little burnt up).

Here's some pics to compare the gears. That's a lot of wear for a little stumble at cruise speed.

[daman1]

Wow that is allot of wear,she should run better now,post back when your done..

[DennisTA15]

I got my truck done today. I took it out and it runs great. It runs a little smoother and accelerates better. In addition to the billet Accel distributor, I also installed an Accel ignition coil and replaced my Accel 8mm wires with the same. It's actually running a little quieter, though not much it's still very loud. Best of all, no more check engine light. I haven't gotten on the highway yet but so far so good. I was very pleased with the quality of the billet Accel distributor. The Accel distributor has next to no play in it. All in all I'm very Happy.

Here's the amount of play on the old one before I removed it.

[gearhed42]

So is it worth it to replace the whole thing for 300 bucks or will just replacing the 20 dollar gear do the trick? Also the people that posted 30 and 45 dollar prices from orileys and napa i believe was that for the whole distributer? Im just getting into the diag of my stumble problem. It happens at just about dead on 1500 rpms. sometimes higher sometimes lower. Sometiems worse than others. No cel though and full tune up done few months ago.

[DennisTA15]

The 30 and 45 dollar prices would be for the gear only. The plastic distributors cost a bit more than worth spending. The main reason I choose to use the Accel distributor was because the stock distributor gear is an uncommon size. The Accel distributor runs the .491 gear which is more common and available in more types of material. I only did this because my motor is buit up a bit and has a supercargher on it and was unsure how long a stock gear would last. With the Accel distributor I can upgrade later on if I need to.

I would check your gear first. Mark your distributor with white out or something on the base and remember which direction the rotor was positioned, or take a picture. It's not worth it, if this isn't your problem, but I would check it first.

I don't remember what rpm my truck missed at, but it was at cruise speed and a slight miss at idle. Meaning just a bit on the gas to maintain speed but not off the gas. At wide open throttle I had no miss it ran good. Mine was easy to detect due to my loud exhaust, any miss or change in running condition was easily heard.

You may want to check the condition of your distributor, as they are made of plastic and regularly break off where the cap screws are. If your cap isn't tight this could cause a miss as well. Another plus for the Accel distributor.

Hope some of this helps.

[gearhed42]

Yea it all helps. I just wish there was some way to tell without actually pulling the distributor. It also could be my injectors because im not sure if they were done. But once again there is no way to tell because there is no CEL on or codes set. Both the parts to fix either of hte 2 problems are 300 bucks. And im afraid knowing my luck that ill replace one and it will be the other one and i dont have 600 bucks right now lol