Hi Andy,
You are mah heero!
Seriously, I found myself wondering what you'd do in these situations and how you'd recover. It gave me some of the backbone to continue with only minimal use of the four-letter-word.
Actually I am so hooked on driving the car it HAS to get fixed!
I have uploaded a scan of the addendum sheet that came with my MSD 8580 distributor, which MSD says fits the 460 and 351C. Look in my gallery to see it and let me know if it isn't legible.
Interestingly it says "Ford" not just 460 / 351C so it may apply to other engines. It does give a different measurement for the FE engines. You can and should CHECK THE BLOCK by measuring the distance between where the indicated distributor and gear surfaces contact the block itself.
The fascinating part of all this is that the new MSD distributor came with a gear on it, and it was located more than 0.010" off - clearly out of spec! Check 'em!
The builder installed the Crane steel gear correctly after removing the MSD-supplied gear.
I used steel because this is primarily a street car and is similar in setup to the zillions of 302s that came with roller hydraulic cams and steel distrbutor gears. Some recommended a bronze gear, but it would need to be checked periodically as they are touted to last less than 10,000 miles.
Needless to say, this one will probably be checked every 50 feet until it goes over 10,000 miles
.
The builder also verified the block's matching surfaces were 4.000" apart.
SFfiredog's length is correct for this unit.
Hi Niles,
A quick read of the Crane literature for the cam I use says "8620 STEEL ROLLER CAMS ... WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND THE USE OF AN ALUMINUM BRONZE GEAR OR A SPECIALLY PROCESSED IRON OR STEEL GEAR SPECIALLY MANUFACTURED FOR STEEL CAMSHAFTS, ON THE DISTRIBUTOR" (the caps are theirs
).
Crane's heavy inference here appears to not only be geometry, but also lubrication and compatibility of materials. I don't have a clue what they mean by "specially manufactured" and "specially processed". We are now using the Crane gear, where previously we used the Ford gear.
To All,
I spoke with Jeff at Ford Racing's tech line a little bit ago. He said my request for reimbursement was not unreasonable; they'd like to see the parts before they agree or disagree which I took as a reasonable request.
So I'll bundle up the parts, write a note describing the problem and my requirements and send it off. There'll probably be a few weeks delay (well I DO have to go diving, don't I?
).
So I'll leave this on an optimistic note -
Later,
Tom