distributor gear
 

i am swapping my 89 5.0 w/ frpp roller cam from efi/tfi distributor to duraspark
and carb set up for my 77 150 would a steel gear be ok , i know the cast iron gear would not work (for long) i know there is a issue w/ gear on a roller cam

Yes, put a steel or bronze gear on the Duraspark distributor to run with the roller cam. Easiest thing is just to take the old gear off the TFI and put it on the Duraspark distributor, as long as it's not badly worn.

I thought there was a shaft diameter difference; so steel gear is larger than shaft on duraspark. Some people have used a bushing. You could also just buy the steel or bronze gear with correct shaft ID and put it on duraspark. Others use duraspark from 1985 Mustang GT with manual trans: it used roller cam and a duraspark with steel gear as standard.

Dont meat to hijack but I have a similar question. Im swapping an 88 302 into a 92 and I need to swap distributors. Do they have the same gears or will I have to swap the gears too?

As long as they're both roller cam or non-roller cam then you're fine. But if, say, the '88 is non-roller and the '92 is roller, then you have to keep the correct gear for each engine with that engine.

I'll have to look into the different shaft diameter thing...

ON EDIT: Armed with my trusty digital calipers I just dug into my vast collection (or is that large pile...? Yes, I think the term "pile" would be more appropriate) of Ford parts and pulled out 2 distributors. 1 is a TFI unit from a recently acquired '93 T-bird 5.0 HO roller cam engine, the other is a Duraspark unit of indeterminate age but believed to be late-'70s vintage.

I took measurments of each of the shafts and discovered...that both measured .450". No difference in shaft diameter. There was a difference in shaft length however, the late-model unit being some 1/2" longer at the the tip. So I would say that they are indeed interchangeable. (Your results may vary.)

thanx!!!!!!!!!!!! they have two choices when buying the duraspark distributor
cast iron and steel gears ... so thats cool

this is because the differences of material that the cam is made out of (from what i can tell)

Yes the visible shaft of both the EFI distributor and the duraspark is both approx 0.45 inches. The EFI is 1/2' longer. Makes sense as both shafts fit in block. Take off both gears and measure shaft under gear. The inner diameter of steel gear is 0.531 inches. The inner diameter of cast iron gear is 0.467 inches. Not trying to cause a problem, but I just went through this last summer with a 1948 Ford Truck with 89 302 EFI converted to carb and duraspark II. We added bushing to take up the shaft difference. I now have same issue with my 1931A coupe with 1992 302 EFI. Also converting to carb and duraspark II. I have the gear inner diameter issue again. I will use the 85 mustang 4V with manual trans duraspark II solution. My neighbor with the 48 was the first to tip me off to this; he is 38 yr retired from Ford Cleveland Casting Plant and good source of info. I found many references and threads on internet referring to this gear issue. Check carbdford.com for conversions.
I think I also read it here. Hope I'm wrong; then it would be easier and cheaper.

I made two other posts with links to sites about shaft differences; don't know where they went. I also measured distributors in my pile. The shaft that extends beyond the gear is indeed 0.45 in both cases and the EFI is longer. But the shaft under the gear is turned differently. The cast iron gear on the DuraII has a 0.467 inch ID. The Steel gear on the EFI has an ID of 0.531 .
I was first informed of this this past summer; with neighbor's 1948 Ford truck. It has a 302 EFI roller and is converted to carb and duraspark II. A bushing had to be made by a machinist. There are aftermarket gears of steel and bronze with correct ID. You can again use the Duraspark II from a 1985 Mustang 4 brl with manual trans. It has steel gear; then use your cast gear dizzy as a core. The separate gear will cost as much as a reman dizzy. You can also get a performance dizzy with steel gear. This gets messy swapping gears. If you need links for reference I'll try to find them again. I will be doing this again this summer; as I am putting my 92 302 roller in my dad's 31 Model A coupe.

Yes, see if you can fimd those links. This has me interested. As I said above, I found the exact same measurement on the two distributors I measured yesterday and I'm interested in what the differences were as far as years and applications.

I think I'll dig out all the 289/302/5.0 distributors I have and check all of them. This may be another one of those mysterious inconsistancies, like the guy who say that he has a late '80s 5.0 with factory 28oz. imbalance...an impossibilty according to all my books, but there it is.

yup i need to know as mutch as i can about this ..... i already have two sticking points motor mounts and headers ???????

I have posted links numerous times and get message about moderated forum and needing approval. Search on cast iron gear in small block windsor forum in Network54 and here also.

I just got a new book yesterday and it has a little more info on this. It says the gears are available aftermarket with both small (.467) and large (.531) inside diameters, so rainbow's numbers and info were right on! But it still doesn't give any definitive info on which came on what...it's a little vague although it does say that most dist. shafts in EFI engines are the larger size.

If you're planning to change the whole distributor, the 1985 Mustang HO had a vacuum advance Duraspark distributor with a steel gear for roller cam, part number E5ZZ-12127-B

What are your issues with mounts and headers?

Rainbow- you got this message when trying to post the links here in this forum? The system isn't supposed to do that. Email me the links and I'll look into it and post them here myself.

well ....i need frame mounts for a windsor ,i just found out that they are different than a 351c/351m/400 frame mount.. the slot on the windsor is in the middle and the
mount for the 400 is offset to the back about 1.5 inch ,
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...d.php?t=467785

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...d.php?t=463995

i will get that distributor ...that will work great

Well, here's another part number. FRPP offers a steel-geared replacement dist. for non-EFI applications in kit form with cap, rotor and plug wires, it's M-12127-B302

Now, let me tell you my story to see if there's any useful information in it for you.

I have a '72 f250 camper special. A number of years back I pulled the FE 390 out of it and swapped it into a '78 F250 that had a 400. I had to remove the motor mount perches from the '72 and swap them into the '78. The frames were identical between the two, insofar as the crossmember was concerned and it was a straight bolt-in swap.

So now I was left with a perfectly good '72 F250 with no engine or tranny. I had a '72 Ranchero that was on its last legs, but under the hood was a fairly fresh 351C. Now, the 351C shares the same motor mounts and bellhousing bolt pattern with the 302/351W, not the 351M/400 (which shares thier patterns with the 429/460) so I decided that the 351C should take up residence in the '72 F250. I did some junkyard scrounging and found a mid-'70s F100 or F150 that had once had a 302 in it, and bought the motor mount perches from it. They bolted straight into my '72 (I might have had to drill a hole or two, I don't recall now) and the 351C then bolted straight in, as would a 302.

For headers, I used the ones from the Ranchero as they were the only ones I had for the bigger 351C-4bbl ports. They were almost a straight bolt in, but there was some interference from the support that runs across the frame under the front of the tranny connecting the brackets that the ends of the radius arms bolt to, so I did a probable no-no...I removed the support figuring I'd deal with it later. (Well, I was in a hurry to get the truck on the road, I had a 600-mile trip to take in it the next day!)

So, I'm thinking that motor mounts certainly won't be a problem, it's not really the mounts you need but the perches. And as for headers, there's so much room under the hood of one of these trucks with that little 302/5.0 that you shouldn't have too much difficulty in finding headers to fit. Just about any shorties will probably clear, and you could always do what I did...junkyard scrounging, picking up any old headers I could find for a smallblock Ford. I have quite a few sets and whenever I'm doing a swap I try different ones to find something that'll fit. Those '80 headers will probably work but I can't swear to it, and Bronco headers will probably work as well.

you have been by far the most knowledgeable person on all three of these subjects

i have purchased the frame mounts and the 302 and 400/351m
frame mounts are slightly different ..enought to cause havoc
i now have the right ones , bought the 85 stang distributor two thumbs up


THANX !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!