Distributor Not Turning

Bandana wrote: Anyone have experience / insight on the quality of the timing covers from APD? I spoke with Bulltear this morning and apparently they no longer carry the distributor and cam gears.... Any recommendations on where to go for a set???? Are these Crown gears any good?

Lately folks have been using the MSD cam and dist gears with success.

I highly recommend taking off the timing set and inspecting the oiling pasages, aftermarket sets can have blocked or incorrectly placed oiling pasages. If that is the case even a good set of dist gears won't last too long.

Thanks for the pictures, yes they certainly do vary alot. I got all my parts ordered yesterday. Got a new timing cover from Bulltear (old one is for sale if anyone feels that chip is inconsequential). Went with the Crown gear set and Felpro gasket/seal kit from Summit.
I could not justify paying $120 for the MSD gear set while the Crown set was $29, especially without hearing any real push for the MSDs. Even the Tech at Summit felt the Crowns would be fine.
Got a bit of clean up to do on the front of the engine today and then I will try to look for any issues with the oiling passages. Then its a wait for parts to arrive - or more specifically the timing cover from Bulltear.....

I bought a set of Crown gears so we'll see I guess. They look pretty well machined. They were coated with some type of cosmoline or something and the cam gear in particular needed to have all of the holes and slots cleaned out good. I could see someone forgetting to do this causing oil flow issues.

Good read, thanks for posting. Ordered some distributor shims today - although I'm still not sure how tight to set this thing. Once they get here and my new cover gets here I'll start seeing how things line up and look. I am guessing that there is no set amount of clearance between the dizzy shaft and the oil pump drive shaft? Basically as long as they don't bind any - plus a bit for good measure?