340 oil galley plug and distributor gear

[WH43897]

The timing on my AAR 340 was wandering about 4 degrees at idle. I could feel it driving, and the back and forth play by hand as well. I have a new distributor and intermediate gear and shaft. I cannot get the shaft out because the oil galley plug is touching/blocking the gear on the shaft. It seems the plug is in too far and the gear wore into it slightly. With just the new distributor installed the timing only wanders about 1, maybe 2 degrees at idle, but I can still feel it at cruising throttle. As far as I know the engine hasn't been rebuilt, but I could be wrong. I can see the wear in the slot in the gear so I assume it's the original gear and that's the remaining slop/play in the timing. I'm guessing the only way to get the gear out is to drop the trans, clutch and flywheel to back off that plug a tad? Has anyone seen this before?

[jimynick]

Jesus, that's fugly. Is that a crack that I see in the plug? And, that's the weirdest plug shape. With the gear steadily grinding on it, there appears to be lots of schmutz on display and how long can it be before the plug wears through and you really have trouble? You could try driving a screwdriver/scraper between the gear and plug to get some clearance, but at the end of the day, I think that trans R&R is inevitable and a real good flushing as well. A real PITA, but lunching your Trans Am engine isn't so $hit-hot a deal either! Good luck