Here are two distributors from my trans am. On the right is the oem (afaik) piece. On the left is what went in after the ignition module blew. (And then that one fried a week later, hence the BWD module in it now. Which is more preferable? The oem one seems to "snap" into alignment more than the other one (maybe cuz there's 8 points on the outside of the ring instead of the 4 on the other one) is that a good thing or a bad thing?

One will be installed in my new 383, the other will be modified to become an oil pump priming tool.

 

There's really no material difference between them; maybe a year model thing or something.

The "cogging" effect is based on the strength of the magnet in it, which varies greatly from one to another. Generally I'd prefer a stronger magnet, but they can be pretty darn weak and still work fine, so probably the better one to use is the one with less mechanical wear.

 

Thanks, I think I'll stick with the one that was in there originally, I was sorta wondering if the cogging effect wasn't a bad sign
. Time to go make me an oil pump primer.