G54B distributor drive gear

[Giovanni89]

Does anyone know what the part number is and where I can purchase a distributor drive gear (the one that bolts to the end of the camshaft) for an 89 2.6? I can find them for the Starion/conquest/montero/colt/arrow 2.6, but they are not listed as being a fit for the ram50/mighty max, which I find odd. Is this just a data base error, or does the 2.6 in our trucks in fact have a different distributor drive gear?
The only one I've found (for the starion/montero/...) is ITM engine components 50169. Not sure if ITM makes quality components. If anyone knows of a high quality part please chime in.
Another question, is there a specification for end play, as well as rotational play for the distributor shaft? I've got an AFR that wanders under certain conditions and was getting some pinging as well. ( I got the pinging to stop by unhooking the vacuum advance on the side of the road). I'm pretty sure it is an ignition timing problem. When I popped the distributor cap off and looked at the shaft, I've probably got about .060" of end play, and a few degrees or rotational play. Subjectively, it feels sloppy to me. It started a while ago, and when I replaced my junk timing chains a few weeks ago it got better but didn't go away. I think maybe that chain slapping around loading and unloading the distributor gears might have put some wear in them. That and 240K miles of driving.
Thanks
Giovanni

[geezer101]

They 'should' be the same. Distributors are interchangeable which means both the relation of where they pass through the side of the head and how they mesh with the gears are identical.

[Giovanni89]

Great! I put a timing light on it and it retards 10 degrees as the shaft walks out. It must have stuck in the retarded spot when I set the timing a week or two ago after the chains. It was running 20 degrees of static timing but I couldn’t hear the ping over the swamper tires I still had on from winter. Just put on my highway treads on the 4th. :shrug: I’ll shim it to get some of the slack out til my new dizzy comes in.

[Giovanni89]

So I ordered the gear and then went to shim the distributor to get me by until the new one comes in. Turns out all of the play was in the mechanical advance unit. The pins had gone dry and were chewed up by slot they ride in. This is what was sticking and causing my timing to be all over the place. I pressed the pins out, flipped them over and pressed them back into the fly weights. Lubed everything up with some moly paste. (Jet Lube MP50 is excellent stuff. It has a 50% moly content. I bought it mainly for shaft splines, but have used it on tons of stuff. Available on Amazon and reasonably priced.) I had a new vacuum advance sitting on the shelf so I put that on, and then set the gap on the pickup. Pinging is gone. Still have some wandering AFR values, but my air filter looks disgusting. Gonna give that a clean and see if that fixes it.
20883208842088520887

[geezer101]

Nice - a fix that only took some CSI work to locate. There's going to be anomalies with AFR's due to all the variables in a neanderthal tech engine. It's never going to be rock solid but anything that isn't pinging or sluggish is a start :thumbup:

[Giovanni89]

well i blew out the air cleaner half way through the tank of fuel today. It was still gross but wandering afr got better. I washed it when I got home and it's drying now. I have an adapter for a round filter coming anyhow. My fuel economy went from 20.5 to almost 23mpg.
I should say, afr always wandered a little, but it is violently swinging lately.
Maintenance on the old girl has been very low for the last year, and miles driven high.
I was commuting 1000 miles a week while I took a new job out of state and was selling my house. Then I lived in a campground all summer while looking for a new house so I didn't really have a place to work on it, and most of my tools were in storage. After a roller coaster with the lender I finally got into my house, and then had a house fire a few months in. Now I'm preoccupied trying to rebuild. Before you know it it's been 20k miles since you cleaned your air filter :grin: I'm used to doing 10-12K miles a year. I've done 45K in the last 15 months. Come to think of it, I should probably do the gear oil in the rear end again.
For all the neglect my truck has taken for the last year, I'm convinced it has Stockholm syndrome.