Within the last two months I've gone thru two rotors in the distributor cap. both times the tab in the center of the cap have broken off. With my bare hand i can rotate the rotor slightly counter clock wise and has up and down travel of approx 1/8 to 3/16 of an inch. Is it time for a new distributor or a buddy said replace the gasket cause over time the gasket shrinks and allows travel up and down to happen and this is whats causing the rotor to fail.

Any ideas out there?

 

id start off with a gasket but id also think about getting the bearings checked on the disy

 

yeah it should only go up and down like a hair. if its actually spinning up and tearing into the cap with the rotor the distributor is bad. ive seen it a few times

 

The inner shaft of the distributor had come free allowing the movement. Once I pulled the old one out I could move the gear up and down almost a 1/4 of an inch. I had never changes a distributor b4 but it went smooth as could be and the truck is running great 185,000 miles here we come