3B distributor trouble

[Dan Cordon]

Okay, here's my short story--

I was surfing Scotts site (posted about bilstien installation earlier
today) and read about his trouble with the 3B distributor. Basically the
plastic cam gear broke off on a 200 he was rescuing. I thought to myself
"What a great site, and such a strange problem."

Well, this afternoon I got on the throttle on my 200 tq 20v, and when I
went to shift gears, it was as if I turned off the key. After towing it
a very short distance home I did some diagnostics and found.......the
distributor isn't turning. At this point I'm (jokingly) blaming Scott
for bad karma. See this link for the page (gotta share the bad karma)
http://www.avacationhomerental.com/MPTSAudiFans200DistributorRepair.htm

The cam's are turning fine, so the belt is okay. But I can turn the
distributor rotor around as if it wasn't even attached to the car. So is
this likely the distributor gear completely broken? Or is there
something else that could be the problem? Can you purchase just the
gear? If not, how much should I expect to pay for a replacement
distributor?

Thanks for any information you can share--

--
Dan Cordon
Mechanical Engineer - Engine Research Facility
University of Idaho