Worn Distributor gear pad

[67xr7cat]

 If you are high or low you will have less tooth engagement. I can say from past experience with bronze distributor gears they wear a lot faster when you don't follow Fords instructions. As for thrust pull the shaft out of the distributor and you will find a bushing designed to take the thrust you are talking about. Ford did all the engineering. Steve

Sounds good. Do what works for you and I will do what works for me which is setting the gear height based on what Ford specs.

I'm going to suggest that the (non lubricated) oilite thrust bushing in the distributor is not designed to take the thrust load of the distributor gear. (A look at the bottom of the distributor gear, will show an obvious heavy duty thrust surface with pressure lubrication)
   When I assemble an FE, I confirm that the lower distributor shaft actually lifts off of the inner distributor thrust bushing a couple of thousandths. If it doesn't, the thrust bushing inside the distributor will overheat and fail. I have seen this failure on more than one of the old YL Mallory type distributors which were not built to as accurate a tolerance as the oem Ford stuff.
The actual location of the intersection along the axes of the cam and distributor gear allow for significant tolerance variation of each.

[Faron]

In a perfect situation the gear DOES ride on the Pad, with about .010-.015 end play ( pushing up from the bottom )  , its not designed to be constantly pulled down , if it is,  it will wear out the top of the Dist bushing , i would set up a dummy dist with the gear at 3.050 at maximum depth ,( i prefer the MSD spec I've verified it with a block and its the easiest way to measure )  I would measure the distance to the worn area of the block and make something to replace the worn area , some type of spot face tool would make a flat surface then perhaps a flange style  brass bushing inserted in the hole , this would of course require a complete disassembly of the block , but a good machine shop should have no problem doing it

[C6AE]

It is often overlooked how much work that gear does driving the oil pump. A high volume pump with a cold engine can tax the assembly. The thrust force must be great and torsion will occasionally shear the pin through the drive gear, or; twist up the driveshaft... I run the larger pump but keep this close to mind when the engine is cold.
To check the end play, I disassemble the advance mechanism and insert the lower part of the distributor in the block and measure with an indicator, comparing (subtracting) the number from the actual endplay in the distributor itself.

(Another fix, which I hinted at earlier is to remove the existing bushing from the block and press a steel sleeve with a shoulder under the gear on a passenger car distributor.. I have done this and it works perfectly with a drop of locktite for insurance. You are left with a steel shaft running in a cast iron bore, which is what Ford intended from the start.)