My car was missing, and i had some noise coming from the distributor when running, then just shutoff on me yesterday. Was able to coast into a parking lot, and after trying to restart many times, I quit. What it was doing while trying to start, it would crank, then stop cranking as if something resisted the starter. So I pull the distributor cap and the rotor has marks where it has been rubbing the cap, and it has play both up/down, but also about 15 degrees or so turning. So I assume this pretty much guarantees the distributor is the culprit then right?

Is replacing it pretty self explanatory, unbolt it and pull it out?

 

Some play up and down is normal, but by play I mean very little..

I know that the cam gear on the bottom of the distributor goes bad from time to time and they make a replacement kit for those. Just throwing in my 2 cents.

 

15 degrees seems like way too much rotational play. When the engine "stop cranking as if something resisted the starter" it could be that the timing was so far off, it was trying to fire the wrong cylinder.

The distributor drive gears have been known to wear. You can buy replacement gears, but when mine went bad I bought an aftermarket distributor for around $100. It came with the cap, rotor, and sensor, and seemed to be better built than the OEM part. The base plate was metal, not plastic, had ball bearings, etc...

Don't simply pull out the old one. There is a simple procedure (search for it on this forum) to get the engine at TDC. Then you can line up the rotor to a mark on the dist housing, drop it in, and all should be well.

You also need to be aware that the end of the distributor shaft drives the oil pump. That needs to be lined up correctly before the dist will go all the way down. You may have to dance with it a bit, but if you know how it works you'll get it right. There's plenty of good info here.

If you can't find (I couldn't...) a 10mm distributor wrench, put the box end of a 10mm combo wrench on the hold-down bolt, then place a 3/8" extension on a ratchet and stick the square end into the open-end side of the wrench. Use the leverage of the ratchet to loosen the bolt.

Have fun!

 

That's almost exactly what it sounds like it's doing. I'll get it to TDC then replace it either today or tomorrow.

 

Took off the distributor, pretty easy to remove, yup, the gear was almost completely worn through on one spot. Time for a new distributor!

 

So I dropped the stupid Torx wrench I was using to tighten down the distributor cap, and it's somewhere on top of the trans... where I can't reach it. What size are the bolts that hold down the cap?

 

This picture should help. Click on the thumbnail to view the full res shot: