Jesse, Tom's comment about never hearing about this problem years ago is right on. I swapped in a Mallory Dual point into my 70 Javelin in the middle to late 70's. Car had about 50,000 to 60,000 miles on it. Car now has 105,000 miles and so far no problem. Well , that's not entirely true, the dist. cap started carbon tracking and arcing so I tried to find a new one for it, cause the dist. is still in great shape, guess what, Mallory stopped making caps for this one (it's a split cap that positively retains the wires) I'm never buying a Mallory piece again, I'll go to MSD or something first. Any way got off track there a little.......... I remember there being some talk recently about junk dist. gears from overseas, ruining engines just like the junk lifters were doing. I think if you stick with a reputable brand you will do OK. On the other hand if you follow Greg's advice and just pull the dist. gear off the old dist. and install it on the new distributor same distance from the flange you'll be eve better ]off. I have three AMC V-8s and I've kept the cam and dist gears off of all of them just to retain as matching pairs of gears for future use, better safe than sorry. Back to MSD, I'm thinking of getting the ready to go MSD Pro Billet Distributor, it doesn't need the spark box to run it but you can use one with it anyway if you like. I was thinking of finding a used 6AL box from one of my dirt track buddies and going with both. If the box fails I can always reconnect the distributor without the box and still drive home. Any body got one of these Pro Billet distributors??? What do you think of them??? Armand ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jesse" <j2sax@xxxxxxxxx> To: <amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, March 28, 2008 12:26 PM Subject: [Amc-list] HEI's chewing gears, how to avoid? > > I have heard so many numerous accounts of new > aftermarket HEI units ruining engines, I am wary of > the one I have now. Even Car Craft fell victim > recently. > > The reason normally given is taht the recipient used a > new dist gear on an old cam drive gear, however, I > rarely heard of this problem throughout the years of > Technicians replacing dist's that weren't HEI. > Mallory and Accel dual points also were without issue, > as far as I know. > > Is it possible to do a "mesh test" like we do on ring > and pinions? If the gear pattern was even and in the > middle, would that guarantee a safe unit? > > Thanks, > > Jesse > > > ____________________________________________________________________________ ________ > Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. > http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs > _______________________________________________ > Amc-list mailing list > Amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx > http://splatter.wps.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/amc-list > > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG. > Version: 7.5.519 / Virus Database: 269.22.1/1347 - Release Date: 3/27/08 7:15 PM > > _______________________________________________ Amc-list mailing list Amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx http://splatter.wps.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/amc-list