I know from general info that if you have a hydraulic roller cam (except Crane) you need a bronze dist gear. Why??

 

It is about the material used for the camshaft core. Cast iron cores use the factory type gear. Bronze or composite (Comp Cams) will be needed with steel cores.

 

So my Comp Roller is steel, I guess thats why it's so pretty.

 

You both are partly right. Crane was the first to use pressed on cast iron gears on their roller cams. They supplied the cores for alot of people in their hayday, Comp, everybody. The reason you use a bronze gear is so that the distributor gear wears out before the cam gear does. Which one is cheaper to replace?

And btw, most Comp cams hydraulic roller cores are carborized cast steel not billet. If it were a flat tappet it would have to be parkerized, hence the dark color. Roller doesn't need that process.

 

Hence my train of thought on this topic,MSD only has six gears left but Comp has lots,I'm thinking about having my local machine shop shave the MSD dist shaft .009 and using Comp bronze gears. The MSD shaft is .500 and the std. shaft is .491. The roll pin holes look to be in the same place, or I could have the gears enlarged each time a replacement was needed.

 

Just enlarge the gears.

 

The gear on my dist is a little loose and I can see a little movement at the roll pin is this normal.Just though I would ask seen how we are on the subject.If not normal then what's the fix?

 

You should not have any play, it should be tight on the gear.