distributor gear: steel or iron?

[BerniniCaCO3]

Hey!

I'm redoing some things on my engine and making it perfect.
and making it painted purple. We'll see if that actually looks good.

I observed that the distributor has some lateral play in it. As in, if you grip the body, and you grip the gear/shaft, you can wiggle the shaft back and forth just a little bit (of course, it goes in and out, too). NO, that's not innuendo. Just gonna terminate all of those types of jokes right here and now.

I've been told that, like a nun, you should NOT be able to play with the shaft, and that in pursuit of perfection I might want to consider a new distributor.
Is this correct?

If so, I need a distributor, fine, no problem.

If I do, NAPA asked me: steel or iron gear?
I'm not sure.

The stock HO cam is steel billet. the stock explorer cam is steel billet. The cam I'm putting in, is steel billet. I dunno what the stock lopo was.
Do I want a steel gear to go with a steel camshaft?
Or an iron gear: better to sacrifice the gear, and even that might take a looooong time, than sacrifice the cam?
Or for that matter, maybe there's more that's different than just the gear, and only the iron-geared distributor fits right, for example.

thanks!
-Bernard

[sly]

roller... steel... flat tappet... iron. generally speaking.

efi... steel... cfi... iron... there's some overlap I think in the transition years... but these general rules apply.

[BerniniCaCO3]

thanks! I reached a local machinist and he confirmed it, as well. I'd gotten some conflicting info yesterday from people who didn't really know.
As it turns out, the rebuild distributor has just as much lateral play as my existing, 130,000 mile one: I won't be replacing it. A coworker had told me that ANY play was bad, and a sign of a failing bushing; guess it's OK though (or the rebuild one is junk )

[sly]

it should have just a little play... but that's what the oiling hole is for... it should get a little lubrication from the engine oil.

[gadget73]

Its not as critical as you might think. Mechanical advance and breaker point distributors need to be tight, but the TFI distributors that have almost nothing in them aren't too picky. As long as the shaft isnt so sloppy that the reluctor wheel can hit the pickup I wouldn't get too concerned about it. They do move a bit even when rebuilt. I would probably flush out the oil holes though to make sure it can get some oil.