Nice?Good deal?

[Denrep]

Ol' fashion spark, chip, or flame tests would  ID the material well enough for our purposes.

[Denrep]

I get the theory...
but right now, strictly from memory of their appearance,   I have a hunch that the OE Cad gears are steel.  

One of these days we can get one in hand and give it at least a rudimentary test.  

I have one on the shelf. Do I just take a magnet to it?

Missed that Russ. Cool.
Touch it to a bench grinder and compare results to spark chart.
Drill with a small sharp drill bit and see if the cut makes chips (iron) or shavings (steel).

There's more but these are easy and the least destructive.

[Russ]

I remembered I made a priming tool from an old dizzy.  The machine shop shaved off the teeth on the gear, as the connecting point to the oil pump shaft is the bottom part of the gear.  The surface where the gear teeth were, is nice and smooth.
Tool a magnet to it, and it sticks.   Where is this so called spark chart?  Goggle it?

I don't have time to do the drill bit test, as I'm heading out soon to pick up a 62 Fleetwood parts car.

[Denrep]

If the machine shop "shaved" rather than "ground" the gear, and it's real smooth... sounds like steel.

[guidematic]

I always figgered they were steel. Case hardened like a cam. Then coated to help run in. The updated HT4100 gears are like that.

Mike

[classic cruiser]

The distributor gear must be softer than the cam gear by design since it is designed to be the replaceable wear part and the old flat tappet cams are case  hardened iron so if the gear is steel it must be very soft steel.