I've been trying to figure out why my timing has been bouncing all around about 5 degrees of erratic jumping, then I noticed that the rotor had a good amount of free play up and down. I thought was odd since I replaced the gear before and don't remember it. I pulled apart the dist and found out the governor slipping up and down the shaft was the problem. The clip was in place, so I made up a spacer using a 6mm washer, drilled it out and turned down the outside to fit down inside the gov. Then stuck the clip on. No more play. And fixed the jumping issue.

Only problem is now the gear cracked putting the pin in, so hopefully it lasts till I get a new gear next week. Should be fine as I drove around a while with a broken gear few years back.

What's the deal with the play in had? Is something funky, shouldn't here always be a spacer under the clip?

No if everything is correct, this should not be necessary... typically this happens if the nylon spacer between the mainshaft plate that the weights hinge on, and the governor cracks or something has worn down the height of the spacer... (or it's missing).

This spacer is critical, in that it holds the governor off the weights, since the weights aren't precision machined that space is needed to keep the bottom of the governor off the irregular surface of the weights.

When you have it out, you might pull it apart and check everything before putting the new gear on...

That spacer is there, and is holding the gov off the weights. It didn't look worn or damaged. Do you happen to have a measurement of that spacer? I'll check when I replace the gear. Thanks