I am in the process of building my new 292 motor. I read about the issues with Cardone distributors and checked mine just in case. I bought this distributor from Mac's Auto Supply about a year ago. Sure enough, my distributor is one of the defective units. The shaft is too short and the gear is in a different place. I have the pan off my engine, so I tested it in my block and the gear does not touch the load bearing surface in the block. It's about 1/4" too high. Not only that, but the oil pump rod was not seating fully in the distributor. I have a 1957 distributor that I was going to use as a core. I placed in in my block and it fits perfectly.
What should I do? Should I use the 1957 distributor? It's the type with the ball bearing advance plate. I will need to buy a straight arm vacuum advance and probably convert it to a Pertronix module. Can I swap the 1957 shaft into the Cardone distributor? I don't want to run a modern ignition system.