distributor gear selection/material
 

I've got billet cams that ate the stock distributor's gears soon after the new cams were installed....so I chose that time to switch to MSD distributors and used bronze gears. I've got about 80 hours on them...and they do have a visible wear line indicating about 15% wear. Should I replace them now? Is there another gear on the market that would give me better wear life? If not...wheres the cheapest place to get new bronze gears if I'm gonna have to do this every couple years?

I have a billet steel roller in my smallblock.I run an Allstar brand bronze gear from the local speed shop $28.00 I change them twice a year once in the spring and once halfway through boating season.I know that there are now poly (plastic gears) But I don't know of anyone that has successfully used one in a marine environment.All roller cams that I buy in the future will have the cast iron gear furnace brazed to the end of the cam so that a steel dist gear can can be ran.

Rob

The best gear out is the comp cams composite gear which will work with bronse or steel and won't wear out ,P M me if you need a part number its online in their catalog , :D :D :D

If you cams didn't have the iron gear, then you proably damaged the cams. The bronze gears are notorious for wearing quickly, but they are designed to be sacraficial as it's easier to change the distributor gear than the cam gear. GM does have a specially heat treated gear that is compatable with a steel cam.

Melanized Gear
 

What Bobby said...GM makes a melanized (for oil retention which reduces wear) iron gear made to run with billet camshafts...they run about $32 and are in the GM perf psrts catalog, I believe. They do not where at all unlike the bronze gears ...

Really guys these gears are plastic (composite) COMP CAM part .it works on either cam !! and MSD shaft part number is
12100 chevy shaft size is different so it has a different part number ,,These may be old part numbers as I bought these some time ago !!!! they don't wear as they are self lubing and weigh less than a feather :D :D :D

ITS THE TICKET FOR Lasting :D :D :D :D :D :D

thanks for the info. I called comp cams and they said the new number for those is 12140. They wanted $107 for them, Summit wanted $100. So I ordered two from Summit. I originally called Summit though, and they had the 1200 units but no description for them. So I called Comp Cams, did my 20 minutes on hold, and was told that the new model of them is the 12140. He could'nt give me any kinda quote on how long they run compared to the bronze....but he said much, much longer....thanks for the info...Glenn

Pm 26 scarab, I believe he ran one all of last year & still has it in this year..............

I put an email in to comp cams asking what the difference is beteen their part number 12100 and 12140. I'll post it when I get an answer......

Finally got a reply from comp cams....they never did tell me what the difference is between the 12100 and the 12140.....but they did tell me that the 12140 is the correct gear for the .500 dia shaft and with a billet cam....so I guess we'll never find out what the difference is....