Too little end float will cause the gears to be meshed too tightly. This
will indeed wear out the gears and some cams have been completely ruined
this way. If the clearance is too loose, it won't hurt anything but may
cause your ignition timing to vary by maybe three degrees.
You can tell the condition of the driven gear by looking at the teeth. If
there is a slight shoulder worn on the face of the teeth, where the
engagement from the cam gear stops, then the gear is somewhat worn.
Typically, though, none of this is a real issue with parts with lots of
miles on them.
The biggest problem setting this comes from the pedestal, which, after 40
years and maybe several disassemblies, may not be flat on the bottom. In
that case, you can set the end play by installing the pedestal and checking
to see if you can slide various thicknesses of feeler gauges between the
pedestal base and the block.
At 11:29 PM 5/10/03 -0400, Robert Dardano wrote:
>Hi guys and Gals can anyone explain why distributor end float is critcal. and
>what may happen when its not adjusted correctly thanks rob
uncle jack
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