Went to Autozone for a new distributor for my '78 302,brought the old one with me, and when ordering nobody wanted to say for sure what type of gear it had, cast or steel. 3 guys thought steel and one said cast. Told them I had a summit cam and it was decided I most likely should have steel. So now I have a distributor with a steel gear and I'm ready to drop it in but now I'm having second thoughts about the gear. Is it a big deal if it should be a cast gear?

 

That motor will have a flat tappet cam in it that requires a cast distributor gear, steel gears are only used on roller cam motors.

 

Returned the steel gear dist and ordered the cast one, thanks