distributor gear

[patpend]

Our 2008 SN (850 hrs) quit suddenly mid course. We found that the disty shaft was not turning as engine cranked. Pulled disty and found the helical gear had all the teeth worn to a razor sharp edge, and three of the teeth had that razor edge rolled over so that the gear was no longer engaged with the camshaft gear. We put a new gear on ( $75, what a scam) managed to get the disty back in the right place (thanks internets!) and she has run great since. But Seattle nautiques and PCM claim to never have seen this before, so we're worried we have some freaky issue. Anybody else ever seen it?

[NautiqueJeff]

I haven't heard of anything like that before. Weird.

[patpend]

Thanks for quick reply. Hopefully we'll get another 850 hrs out of this gear. I had been chasing a recurrent miss by retarding "timing" about once a year to get the rotor lined up with the post in the cap. I know its not really timing of spark, just alignment of rotor and cap. But, in retrospect, the alignment of rotor and cap was drifting off due to the gear wearing. Sure hope the cam gear is ok.

[functionoverfashion]

I haven't seen that on an engine that new, but I have seen a distributor gear with its teeth all shaved off. The oil pan had a lot of metal shavings in it... maybe yours happened slowly enough that the filter picked up most of that, as you said you've been having to adjust the position of the distributor over a few years.