the NOS pins I have are not tapered but keep in mind that these style solid pins were essentially peened on with a dedicated piece of equipment. As HRL noted above, if there was any variation in the hole for the pin in the distributor gear, the peening process would hvae filled that in, or in other words, a little bulge that would make getting the pin out in that direction pretty hard if not impossible with out breaking the gear. So if you use the other side that was not peened, you might get it out in that direction.
That being said, I have never been able to use an original style solid pin when installing a new gear. I cant get the pin to peen down snug enough by hand so I have always used hardened delco remy roll pins or after market pins made specifically for distributpr gears.
