[baritonejim]

It's complete thanks to some help from a friend and his mechanic father. You do not have to take the gear off the shaft, in fact it won't easily come off at all. The screw on the top of the shaft turns in the standard direction but is very tight, probably from the rotation of the shaft. It took an expensive flat screw driver that perfectly fit the slot with zero play and a large handle and a lot of muscle to get screw off of the top of the shaft of the distributor and gain access to the coil.