Swapping Distributor Gear When Installing New Hei.

Just remove OEM gear, drill out roll pin hole to 3/16" and install it on the new distributor. The gear on the right is from an "A-Team" new HEI. This was a hundred mile test. The gear on the left is an original GM gear that most likely has 100k miles on it. The original gear shows less wear then the 100 mile gear. Some might ask why take the chance but putting in an HEI feels like you are gaining fifty horsepower over a points distributor. Nothing wakes up a Buick motor like an HEI. Rockauto currently shows three choices for rebuilt OEM units (75 Buick Regal with odd-fire 231) that seem to have good quality gears for those wanting OEM. Another choice that was popular pre-internet was converting an even fire to odd-fire but this has pitfalls and the housing has different clocking indents for cap orientation.

 

I like this type of real world testing thanks Daryl

 

The quality of so many new parts is terrible. I just had to swap out a 6 month old master cylinder on our '89 F-250. It was a little spongy from the start and in 6 months time it leaked all the fluid past the rear seal. Brand new junk.

 

Probably another case of you get what you pay for. I suspect TA's 350 HEI gear would produce results similar to or better than stock GM but that gear alone is about 50% of the A team distributor cost. But this is another place I don't want cheap parts, period.