Stripped distributor gear

[crawdad1]

I have a 1973 runabout that I have fixed up over the last several years. The engine is a Chevy inline 6 cylinder. About a year ago the distributor drive gear stripped out. The cam gear looked fine so I changed out the distributor gear, put a new oil pump in and the engine has been running great until last weekend when the gear stripped out again. I have checked the oil pump and the cam gear again and they seem to be fine. I know that the distributor was seated completly down and tight. The shaft in the distributor does not seem to have any "slop" in it.
Does anyone have any ideas what could be causing the gear to strip?
You help would be greatly apreciated.
Crawdad

 

[vxtech]

Re: Stripped distributor gear

if distributor shaft is not binding, i would check camshaft thrust,(forward & back motion in block) if thrust on cam is excessive it will drive cam gear deep into dist gear causing binding and excessive wear or shear teeth off dist gear

 

[crawdad1]

Re: Stripped distributor gear

What would be the best way to check this with the engine still in the boat. or do I need to task the engine apart?
The teeth of the gear are not wore completly off. it almost looks like it just shaved the side of the gear making them "pointy"
Thansk for the responce.

 

[cr2k]

Re: Stripped distributor gear

Cam play is checked by removing the timing cover and placing feeler gauges behind the cam gear to determine the amount of thrust play.
Wear can be on cam thrust face or on retainer or both.

 

[crawdad1]

Re: Stripped distributor gear

THansk for the response. I will check it and let you know what I find

 

[crawdad1]

Re: Stripped distributor gear

It looks like it is the bushings in the distributor. I found another distributor and will replace it . I will let you know how it turns out
thanks for the help
Crawdad

 

[czar97]

Re: Stripped distributor gear

How did things work out with your distributor swap?

I just pulled my distributor last night and found a spot where 30% of the gears are missing.

The oil pump rotates, but seems "spongy" when I'm rotating it with a long flat-head screw driver. Then it (the oil pump) sorta snaps back (counterclockwise) only a half a degree or so kinda like a wind-up toy would. So it turns... but still sorta strange.

Just wondering what caused my gear to strip out on the distributor. Hoping it's just a bad distributor shaft or bushings.

How did you come to the conclustion that it was the bushings that went bad in yours? Is there something specific i should look for on the distributor?

Thanks,
-matt

 

[Eric 3.7LX Alpha 1]

Re: Stripped distributor gear

Good luck with him responding:
Join Date: March 10th, 2011.
Last Activity: March 12th, 2011 11:34 AM

He joined and his last post was 2-days later, over a year ago.

 

[Don S]

Re: Stripped distributor gear

Welcome to iboats czar97, you really need to start a new thread when with your question, not drag up old dead threads and hijack it with your question.