My 02 silverado 4.3 is eating the distributor shaft drive gear, this is the second one in 10,000 miles has anyone heard or seen these motors do this? Mechanic says the cam needs to be replaced, it only has 120,000 miles on it, seems odd, is this a common issue with this motor?

 

Did you check the bushings for wear in the distributor? That could cause the gear to wear out prematurely. When I sold my 99 4.3 with over 175,000 miles on it the distributor was still good.

 

The gear on the dist. was changed out at a dealership, I would hope that a GM certified mechanic would know enough to look for that, he never mentioned it,...... if the bushings on the dist. shaft are bad does that mean a whole new dist. or can you replace just the bushings?