distributor replacement best practices?

[Henry A Harper III]

Does anyone have a handy writeup for 3B distributor replacement? The
archives reveal mention of a tamper-resistant cover and difficult-to-reach
clamp nut, along with the alignment issue. Nothing specific on SJM or
Miller's site. Is it not really that hard of a job, just a bit difficult to
reach things without removing intake manifold? I have had a metal-geared
distributor kicking around for couple years and would like to get it in
there to see if it fixes the intermittent cutout issue (darn plastic gear).

TIA
Henry Harper
http://www.henry-harper.com hah at alumni.rice.edu
1991 200 quattro, 120k
1988 GTI 16v, 239k