3B distributor trouble

[Kneale Brownson]

The gear IS NOT an aftermarket part.  There was a group that had a machine
shop manufacture a replacement metal gear some time back, but I believe
that entire production run sold out.  There ARE some of us who bought one
(or more) prophylactically, and may now have an "extra" because of
something happening to the car, but I've not heard anyone offer.

You want to be sure that if you purchase a new distributor you get one of
the later ones that have a metal gear.

At 09:34 PM 09/09/2003 -0700, Dan Cordon wrote:
>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
>
>
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