Reply to "Dear George."

A sheared roll pin has nothing to do with the cam DeTom. This failure is related to the replacement of the oil pumps drive shaft. The oem drive shaft will twist or flex when the oil pump passes debris. The heavy duty drive shafts do not twist or flex, so the next weakest link is the roll pin securing the drive gear to the distributor shaft. When ever a heavy duty oil pump drive shaft is installed, the roll pin needs to be beefed up to prevent sheering. This is normally accomplished by pressing a second, smaller roll pin inside the first one.

If the roll pin has sheered, but is somehow still creating enough drag to prevent the shaft from spinning free, the timing should walk off (again?). I add the parenthesis & question mark because I'm not so sure the timing walked off to begin with. It sounds to me that it has been set improperly since day one.

The nice thing about a sheered roll pin, the motor shuts off at the same time the pin sheers, so the motor is protected from damage.

This is just one of the little reasons why I advise folks to have their motor built by somebody who knows these motors.

your friend on the DTBB