Hi Colin.
Since the complete set of gears are at hand for you to inspect, a simple answer might be a close inspection of the small gear in question.
In theory, if it was nothing more than a gear oil splasher, it should bear no signs at all of the physical kind of wear it would receive having spent it's active life with two other gears crashing back and forth into it.
If it was just an oil splasher, the edges of the teeth should look very much like the day they were first cut, barring any uniform kind of corrosion that would have developed as the lubricant slowly disappeared over time.
David
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