[audidrums]

I am replacing my OE nylon gear with a brass gear from 034 on my 3B distributor. I removed the old gear, which was a pain in the ass. Pressing it out was the way to go in my case, after some experimentation. (Let's just say- good thing I had a spare dizzy...). Now as I prepare to push in the new roll pin through the brass gear, I can see that when it's all together, there will be a bit of axial play. I don't have a gauge handy, but it looks like about 1 mm.

I don't have any spacer/shim washers handy, but I need to get this thing back together. Anybody know if I'll be good to go as-is? Or should I track down some shims? And if so, where should I look for those? Thanks!

 

[yodasfro]

Wait what did you press? Is it possible you bent the shaft?

 

[audidrums]

After carefully attempting to remove the factory pin with a punch, I managed to still destroy the spacers that are between the gear and the body of the dizzy. I had a spare dizzy though, which just needed an electrical plug. So I cannibalized the first dizzy for it's electrical elements, and installed them in the body of the second dizzy.

I was able to get the pin out of dizzy #2 without any chaos, by using the following crude, but gentle method, which is pretty self-explanatory in the pic. I first carefully chipped and/or cut the plastic gear away, leaving the metal inner collar and a now-more-exposed pin. I turned the vice, and "pressed" the pin right out. (note- I ended up using a deep well socket to give the pin more room to move out of from the shaft.

I highly doubt that would have bent the shaft. A bent shaft would also have little effect on axial play I think.



It occurred to me after my post that if I'm lucky, the shaft from the other dizzy might have a hole that is slightly further "down," potentially reducing my axial play. If that doesn't work, I'm still unsure what the best course of action is.

 

[yodasfro]

Ah yes axial not radial you could of just said up and down Well if you ain't got no shims then I wouldn't worry about it. Typical the less play the better but it should be fine. If you are concerned about it maybe try a local hardware store to see if they have any shims.
Otherwise you'll waiting ordering actual distributor shims from somewhere.

 

[audidrums]

Ah yes axial not radial you could of just said up and down

Well "up and down" could be either axial, or radial, depending on perspective. I try to use the technical terms to avoid confusion Must be my engineering background... oh wait, I'm an elementary education major. :lol:

I guess I'll just run it and see. I would think that suddenly going from engine accel to decel, and visa-versa, would change the axial location of the dizzy gear relative to the cam gear, thus minutely, momentarily affecting the timing.

Based on my measurement of the existing shims, the inside diameter is .495 inch. If I get lucky, the local hardware store will have some 1/2" shims of some sort (I'm doubting they'd have that type of item in metric). If not, hopefully good ole Motronic will figure out what to do. I think that worst case, the dizzy will be "buzzier" than average.

As always, thanks for the help Austin.