HEI distributor gear question

[jeremy5780]

I'm putting a new HEI distributor in my AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l due to the current HEI being old and has some play in the shaft. My question is do I need to swap the gear from the old one to the new one? or can I just drop the new one in and be done?

 

[Torxhead]

In this forum, there are a couple of guys experienced in that. Right off hand if your current gear is good, you could swap that on. I believe you could purchase one from MSD that would be O.K. Basically you just don't to put in too hard of a gear in so that it would wear down the distributor drive gear on the cam. If you had access to a hardness tester, you could get help there.

 

[mriplaybass]

I know that the AMC 304 's are well known for chewing up the cam gear when a new distributor is installed using the new gear. I used the old gear when I put my HEI in a few years ago and have had no problems. I'm not sure if the AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l has the same problem, but you know that the old gear worked, so why not just swap it to be sure.

 

[mtnwhlr]

I know that the AMC 304 's are well known for chewing up the cam gear when a new distributor is installed using the new gear. I used the old gear when I put my HEI in a few years ago and have had no problems. I'm not sure if the AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l has the same problem, but you know that the old gear worked, so why not just swap it to be sure.

 

[Hedgehog]

If the gear that is already lapped in and mated with the cam gear is in good condition why not spend the extra 30 seconds to a couple minutes to swap the old gear to the new distributor? Just for the peace of mind if nothing else.