Standard rotation dist in Rev rotation 454

I’m replacing the distributor on my ‘85 Southwind due to the weights on the original Mallory (with electronic conversion) being seized. I’ve been having some popping, surging, and cutting out entirely above 3,000 RPMs, so with the seized up weights, i figured a new electronic distributor wouldn’t hurt. When I pulled out the original to install the new one, I found that the original has standard rotation gears (/////) instead of (\\\\\). How is this possible? The pulleys turn CCW and prop CW and the engine tag shows 1-2-7-5-6-3-4-8, which is how the wires are attached.

The slightly longer version is that Chevy uses a 2 gear setup instead of a timing chain to drive the cam on a Reverse Rotation engine, so the cam is turning the same way in both engines.

The gear setup makes the cam turn backwards as compared to the crankshaft rotation so it's turning the same way as the standard rotation cam.

The cams aren't interchangeable from Normal to Reverse Rotation because they're ground with different firing orders

It's confused many people so don't feel like the Lone Ranger   

Extremely helpful. I just ordered a standard rotation gear to swap out. Thanks!

It is a DUI. I spoke to them earlier today. They suggested the gear swap. I had one in my 78 Nautique that was reverse Rotation but that was a commander 351, and the swap is quite easy. Thanks for all the help. Too bad I didn't see that thread before ordering this one!