[tekuhn]

Just a thought - these are helical cut gears, and based on the direction of rotation, the driven (distributor) gear will be pushed upward against the shims/distributor body and effectively taking up any slack. I read a lot of comments where people wonder why there seems to be so much clearance from the factory on the distributor gear to body. I see comments about making this clearance tight to eliminate timing fluctuation during deceleration? This makes no sense as the gear will remain pushed up tight against the shims at all times due to the substantial (and constant) load of the oil pump. Perhaps the true purpose of the shims is to set the distance from the gear to the distributor block flange so that the gear has proper mesh with the cam gear? Just a thought.