As i recall when i put the second one in, my local gm tech had told me about the +/- 2* spec and when i checked it was sitting at +1*

how do you mean "mod" drill the hole out for side to side movement or drill it so that it can be turned like an older style distributor?

 

Grind the tabs off the bracket, or u can just use an sbc holdown , this will allow the dist to be fully adjustable like the old school ones......

 

Nice job explaining it Jeff, you paid attention in class

 

U taught me well!!!! we need to hang out again........ I need to learn more

 

One thought, when you install the distributor is there any side to side movement at all? if there is then there may be some wear on the intake manifold and this is letting the distributor shaft "walk" from side to side. This is the only other thing i can think of that would destroy the gear. There are only so many things that could cause this and we have pretty much covered them I believe.

 

The ID for the distributor in the intake manifold is larger than the OD of the distributor, so it will move around, perfectly normal. This is what allows camshaft retard to be adjusted, and also what causes the gear to wear out if it's not adjusted correctly.

 

That would make sense Capt. I knew that the only way this could happen is if the dist. was not set properly and it sounds like there is very little allowance in this particular system.