185 Interceptor Cam Question

The machine shop that is boring my 292 questioned the amount of end play in my cam, this is a RH rotation motor with the gears on cam and crank. After inspecting the cam for wear and me telling them that when I disassembled the block that 2 lifters were broken, they think that the cam was riding too far to the rear of the engine causing the lifters to hit the side of some of the lobes on the cam. There is what appears to be a thrust washer that is part of the front gear, but there was also a thrust washer behind that. My question is, should there be an additional washer between the gear and the first journal or could this be a mistake that was made when the cam was placed into this remanufactured short block many years ago? I'm thinking that when the short block was replaced they transferred everything including the cam from the old motor, and the mistake was made at that time. Who knows how long it has been since this engine ran, the boat was last registered in '92, but the remanufacture tag on the side of the block appears to be very old. The Interceptor manual I have does not go into much detail on RH rotation motors so I do not have any diagrams showing the correct assembly of the cam to gear parts. The 272, 292 and 312 RH rotation motors should all be the same. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Jeff

Well, I answered my own question. There should only be one spacer between the block and cam gear. Some gears had the spacer integrated into the gear itself and others took a separate spacer. In my case the spacer was part of the gear and after removing the separate one and putting it where it belonged, between the fuel pump eccentric and the cam gear, I now only have .002-.003 camshaft endplay as it should be.


Jeff