HELP - '84 5kS won't start after distributor work...

["G. Benedikt Rochow" <rochow@segsrv.hlo.dec.com>]

This weekend, I made an attempt at replacing the vacuum advance
on my '84 5kS. After quite a bit of difficulty in getting the two
screws that hold it to the distributor off (with the distributor
in place), I couldn't get the unit's arm onto the pin on the advance
disk. After lots of trying, which included taking off the dist. cap,
I finally removed the distributor; with it in hand, it wasn't too
hard to put the vacuum advance on.

After I put it all back together, I noticed that the plug  
for the Hall sensor on the side, which had been wiggly
due to something (a top clip, as it turned out) being cracked,
was not held at teh top by the edge of teh cap as I think it  
used to be, but was hanging off further. I ignored
that for teh moment, being more worried about having gotten the  
timing way off when reinserting the dist. shaft.

Cranked it up, ran just fine. After 20 secons or so, I stopped
the engine to see about getting that plug on better.
I took teh dist. cap off again, to tuck thta plug whereever it needed
to go (or rather, put it where it would be if it was all teh way
intact, and then put the cap on and see if it does anything
for it). Upon starting again, it ran very rough, as if missing on
several cylinders. Futzed around with it some more, as I'd had
a bit of trouble getting the cap on straight; no start at all.

That's where it's now, no firing whatsoever. As the old rotor 
looked pretty worn, I got a new one from a parts place, no effect.

Considering that the only things I touched between running fine
and not running at all are the cap (and rotor, I suppose) and the
Hall effect sensor wiring that hangs there, what could cause this?
Mis-aligned cap causing the cap contacts to be ground away?
What would damage to the Hall wiring do?

(I just remembered I forgot to check for spark - though I can
sort of trust there is none, considering what happened, right?
Or is the 'ECU' in this car powerful enough to cut of fuel
based on lack-of-Hall-sensor-info?)

TIA,
-G. Benedikt Rochow

PS: speaking of Team Doorhandle with regard to the accessibility
of the vacuum advance, I'd rather change all my doorhandles than
do this job again...