Currently all of my objects that will operate have Physics (immovable; drag/drop) and collision turned off whilst I've contained a Physics sprite to each object that will trigger the actual event. It made sense to do things this way so the sprites can animate AND not affect the physics of anything else; following a lot of tutorials really helped out.
For the 'Gear' object, I created a rectangle sprite and a circle sprite each with Physics (immovable) -> arranged 4 rectangle sprites to the circle in a proper pattern -> Pinned them to my 'Gear' object that has rotation -> Have the 'Gear' rotate when the 'Ball' collides with either the rectangle or circle sprite with a set rotation (max 100 pix).
I'll get a capx available soon.