I'm seeing if anybody has seen a problem installing a HEI unit in a AMC 304. I bought the unit from heidizzy off Ebay, I installed it and drove about 20 miles, then it quit, After checking out the problem, I have found the Distirbutor cam gear stripped on one side and like a razor on the other side. I have good oil pressure, about 40 psi driving and 20 psi at a idle. ANy help would be great.

AMC V8's are notorious for eating cam/dizzy drive gears. That's all i got, must have got a bad dizzy :(

*edit. You might do a search on Bulltear.com, i know the issue has come up several times.

Sounds like your dizzy clamp wasn't tightened all the way.

Either that or your cam is walking, but if it wasn't eating gears before I'd say it was the clamp ;)

If its a chevy HEI large cap, Make sure your distributor is seated all the way and the clamp is tight.

After you replace both, get some gear marking compound, Seat the dis and manually spin the motor over a few times, The pull it and see where your contact pattern is.

I bought a DUI HEI and had problems with it fitting between the PS pump and the thermo housing. I ended up selling it and going MSD on a mallory drop in dis.

Same gap as the HEI, and same performance.

As already mentioned, AMC's are NOTORIOUS for this. I had the issue on 4 separate engines.

There's some really good reading on the IFSJA and BullTear boards about this issue.

Long story short I found a couple of contributing factors:

1) NEVER put a new dizzy gear into an existing cam gear (would have been better if you used your old gear).

2) If you replace one gear, do both with a matched set, there are a number of vendors out there, and some of them are incompatible.

3) Check the specs on your new Dizzy. When I got my first couple (vendor to remain nameless) they were off by a LOT. I eventually put in a Procomp that was the closest to factory specs out of the models I looked at.

4) Make sure your timing cover is in good alignment, and good working order. You may want to replace the dowels while you have it all apart.

5) At this point you have no option but to crack it open and replace the cam gear. While you are at it you may as well put in a new double-roller timing chain if you don't have it already. While looking at getting that done, read up on the AMC oiling issues on the forums above to make sure you put it all together correctly.

help

Have you done anything that was suggested here?

Take a little initiative, no one is gonna hold your hand.....:flipoff2:

have parts on order, Thanks for all your help

have parts on order, Thanks for all your help

Throwing parts at it isn't going to resolve the issue. You REALLY need to do some reading (if you haven't already) otherwise you're going to be doing this AGAIN (don't ask how I know). If you don't get the RIGHT parts and understand how oiling issues can cause these problems, you're in for more.

Hope the push in the correct direction helps.

Oh and if I ever meet the guy who designed the timing cover on AMC V-8's I'm gonna have to kick him in the nads. :shaking:

Oh and if I ever meet the guy who designed the timing cover on AMC V-8's I'm gonna have to kick him in the nads. :shaking:
X 1bazillion :shaking: