whole distributor or just drive gear?

[ColoradoTahoe]

Hey guys its my first question on here. I'm going to have to replace the drive gear on my distributor soon and I saw its a cheap fix. The part on rockauto for only like $35. Well I also saw a whole assembled aluminum case distributor for $100. Does anyone have any experience with that one or should I keep the O.E. housing and change the gear, cap and rotor? Thanks for any input
96 4dr 4x4 5.7

 

[livingez_123]

What I would be more worried about is where did all of the metal go from the old drive.
it's a 96 5.7 so it has the roller lifters which means it needs a bronze gear, not a steel one. The gear is such an easy fix I would just keep the old dist unless the bottom bushing is shot, but that's an easy fix also. If you the extra money buy the whole unit, but if not just fix what you have.

 

[ColoradoTahoe]

Thanks for the reply. Yeah my same thought about the metal. I've changed the oil twice since it threw the code (less than 1000 miles) just to be sure. I will have the extra money to replace the whole thing next month just wasn't sure if the aluminum housing was a good replacement over stock. While I'm doing that I'm also swapping injectors to mfi from the old poppet style and doing upper and lower intake gaskets and valve cover gaskets all at once. Ill probably just buy the whole thing and keep the oe as a spare.

 

[SunlitComet]

msd makes a drop in replacement dizzy for the 350 vortecs. #5592 i think for about $215. cam sensor is preinstalled and comes with cap n rotor too.

 

[largewon62]

I bought the whole aluminum dist, with cap and rotor shipped for $50 on Ebay.