Is there a Good way to determine what type of gear is at the end my Distributor?- I either have a Cast iron, or a Steel gear-
Why did they do this?

-My Stator, or (pick-up coil) is toast inside my Distributor.
And I have the two choices of either replacing it with a Rebuild, or tearing down Mine, and replacing the bad stator- thing is, from what I understand, after Ive purchased the stator, and tore the distributor down, and then replaced everything- If the armature touches the stator due to a worn shaft,internal distributor bushing- I have to get another Distributor,- which would lead me to buy the rebuild instead of pot luck at the junky.
And the part store frowns on electrical returns,- so Id have to eat the new stator.- I'm thinking Id be better off just buying the rebuild.

-which brings me back to the original Question about the difference between the Two drive gears at the end of the Distributor..
can anyone help with this Question??

 

does it make a difference on the rebuilt ones?

 

If I remember correctly, the cast iron gear is used with the "older" flat tappet camshafts and the steel gear is used with the "newer" roller camshafts. I may have the gears reversed, but I'm 85% sure I'm correct. What year truck do you have? What motor?

 

As stated cast iron flat tappet cam uses cast iron gear. Steel roller uses gear made of steel, or bronze, or there is now a polymer type gear. Steel would be the most durable for the roller cam.

 

Its an '88 F150 lariat With a 5.0 EFI
-How can you tell by lookin at one? -I dont wanna tear down the front of the motor to see what kinda cam shaft I have. - When you mentioned "Older, and Newer" did you mean certain "years"??
-I gotta bring the old one down to the Parts store anyway for the core charge.
I just hope that I can visually see the difference between the two gears.

 

I understand that the cast iron, and the steel gears are not interchangeable- you gotta go with what you have
Is there a visual difference between the two gears????

 

I know Ford started putting roller camshafts (steel distributor gear) in Mustangs in '85. I'm not sure when Ford started putting them in trucks. Possibly as early as '88 but again I'm not sure. The parts store should be able to tell you which one you need. You could go to partsamerica.com or autozone.com and do a search for a distributor for an '88 F150 XLT Lariat with a 5.0L and it should tell you which one you need. You then can go to your parts store with some confidence in talking with the parts guy.

 

yea, i think i'll go that route-
thanks

 

5.0 & 5.8 Trucks didn't get roller cams till 94-ish. Just make sure where you git-it knows it's for an 88 truck.

 

Tnanks Scndsin, I didn't know when Ford started to put roller cams in the trucks. I just knew that the trucks had them for a time before the changeover to the mod motors.

 

if you pay the shipping i'll give you the distributor out of my 89 5.0 works great nothing wrong with it i swapped over to a carb and don't need the distributor anymore it has an msd cap and rotor i beleive with less than 5000miles on them

give me a PM with your address and i'll get a shipping quote and you can send me a money order or something

 

A standard roller cam was used in truck 302's starting around 92, then went to the 351 firing order in 94

 

Thanks for the info EPNCSU2006, That's good info to remember. Are the Lightnings the only 5.8L trucks that received a roller cam?

 

Thanx for the correction, I was close.

 

I'm not sure that the lightnings had a roller cam or how many of the other F4TE casting 351s had a roller cam either.