I'm help a friend repair his distributor. His tach stopped working and I determined it was NOT the cable or tach itself. Pulled the distributor and found that the cross shaft has locked up inside the brass coupler and could not spin. The main shaft gear then proceeded to chew a big chunk of the gear teeth off the cross shaft (look at the top cross shaft in the attached picture).
So I had him order a new cross shaft, the one at the bottom of the attached picture. I put it in the tach and it would not spin. If I force it, I can turn the main shaft, but not easily. So I did the following:
1) The main shaft gear looks very good. No obvious wear, however, since the unit would not spin, I'm thinking there may be something wrong with the main shaft gear. So I tried a know good main shaft from another distributor. Same results, it will not spin, the gears on the reproduction cross shaft WILL NOT mesh correctly with the gear on the main shaft.
2) I reinstall the original main shaft and put in an original cross shaft from another tach (middle one in the attached picture). The tach main shaft spins as it should no interference or hanging.
So my questions are, did I just get a bad reproduction cross shaft, or are they all like this? Anyone else have experience with a reproduction cross shaft? This one happened to come from Paragon, however, I assume most of the other major corvette vendors sell the same part?
I did find one on eBay that looks different (second picture). I'm hoping it is from a different manufacturer and is correct.
Thanks,
Don
DSC_0066.jpgNew cross shaft.jpg
So I had him order a new cross shaft, the one at the bottom of the attached picture. I put it in the tach and it would not spin. If I force it, I can turn the main shaft, but not easily. So I did the following:
1) The main shaft gear looks very good. No obvious wear, however, since the unit would not spin, I'm thinking there may be something wrong with the main shaft gear. So I tried a know good main shaft from another distributor. Same results, it will not spin, the gears on the reproduction cross shaft WILL NOT mesh correctly with the gear on the main shaft.
2) I reinstall the original main shaft and put in an original cross shaft from another tach (middle one in the attached picture). The tach main shaft spins as it should no interference or hanging.
So my questions are, did I just get a bad reproduction cross shaft, or are they all like this? Anyone else have experience with a reproduction cross shaft? This one happened to come from Paragon, however, I assume most of the other major corvette vendors sell the same part?
I did find one on eBay that looks different (second picture). I'm hoping it is from a different manufacturer and is correct.
Thanks,
Don
DSC_0066.jpgNew cross shaft.jpg