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 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 258 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.