[DeTomaso] Distrubutor Gear Chewed Up

[Thomas Tornblom]

Speaking of steel roller cams, I just ran into an unforeseen problem 
today with my new Crane hydraulic roller cam. The threads for the cam 
gear bolt starts way too early, which makes the unthreaded part of the 
bolt shank bottom out before clamping the gear properly.

It was just by sheer luck that I noticed. I got a box with random arp 
bolts from Summit today, and one of them was a new cam bolt. The 
supplied washer is slightly thinner than the stock washer, and when I 
tried to bolt down the gear, the bolt wasn't even close to reach the 
washer before it couldn't be threaded anymore.

I compared it to the old cast iron flat tappet Crane cam, and the 
threads starts about 0.78" down the hole, and the bolt can be threaded 
almost to when the bolt head reaches the cam, if no gear is in place. On 
the new cam the threads starts 0.31" down the hole.

Using the old bolt I get about 1/4 turn after the bolt touches the 
washer before the bolt bottoms out in the cam core.

Is this a common problem, and are there any special short bolts for this?

Thomas