Big Block Gear Drive On A Slant?

I would cut strips of paper or foil and run it through the gears while turning them with the wrench. This is a check to see if the gears are parallel with one and another, this would be indicated by the meshing of the paper folds. Also you can tell if there is equal clearance, such as one strip use for crank gear and idler gear versus maybe two or more for the idler gear and timing gear.