I've seen all this and it doesn't change the quandry...
The gears are clearly identifiable by the chart you showed, but also if you sandblast them. The later models gear comes out regular steel colored, while the older ones come out with a copper or brass color to them. But the gears are not thinner, nor are they pitched differently. So the questions above stand. The cam can have a thinner gear area but the structures are the same. So a thinner gear would simply have a more wider gap before the next feature. So, call me thick, but I am still confused as to the ramifications of running an older gear on a newer cam.
