Distibutor interchangability problem

[5.0 Fiend]

I took my 84 and 88 dist's to the machine shop the other day, so that I could get the 88 drive gear put on the 84 vaccum advance distributor to work with the 88 billet roller cam. The problem is, is that the distributor shafts are different diameters, and the 88 drive gear is too big to fit on the 84 dist tight, what do I do now? Do I order a gear from a catalog? Should I buy a bronze one? How do I make sure I get the right size gear for my dist?

[~The Jester~]

I had great luck with my bronze gear. Problem is, plan on buying another one next year, they wear out rather fast. Call your local Ford dealer, tell them you need a steel gear for an '84 ditzy. Plan on drilling a new hole for the roll pin. Back then Ford drilled those shafts one at a time by an actual human, and each ditzy gear roll pin is not necessarily in the same place.

I can't believe those are different sizes. I was always under the impression that all 302's used the 1/4" oil pump drive, and that the 351w use the 5/16". I KNOW those are different. But going from 1 302 ditzy to another shouldn't be a problem, but obvioulsly it is. Is the shaft itself different diameter, or is it the outside gear diameter? Maybe becasue the '84 wasn't a roller cam, and had a bigger base circle on the cam? Beats me! Can anyone else shed some light here? Now I gots ta know too!

[5.0 Fiend]

No, the shafts are different diameters, the 88 shaft is thicker.

[red82gt]

F/I 5.0L shaft is .531", The duraspark ones are .466". Order the steel gear from Ford racing. It's only like $25. I learned this the hard way before too.

[5.0 Fiend]

Cool, that solves my last problem, does ford racing have a web site? Guess I'll try a search.