Tis the season...need your help guys.

Driving to work this morning, going down a long steep street in second gear to save the brakes. Pulled into the house I'm remodeling at the bottom of the hill and just before I shut off the motor, I hear what kind of sounds like an exhaust leak. No big I thought and I go to work. Later in the day I go to leave, start the truck, it fires right up then stutter and stalls. I start it again, fires right up then stutter and stalls.

So I checked the plugs first, they need to be replaced but was putting it off until after Bah Humbug day, no big deal. I then check the rotor and low and behold the rotor just spins freely in my hand. I tried to pull the distributor but it wont come out. It rotates left and right but doesn't want to come up and out.

So what gives? Broken shaft, gear, cam?? I have no idea.

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Timing belt broken? but I dont know why the distributor would not come out.

The splines on the dizy shaft are shot. Most likely the shaft is getting caught on something while being pulled up. See I you can work the shaft around trying to find the sweet spot to get it out.

Is the shaft spinning or is it just the rotor? I had the screw that holds the rotor fall out on me once, check that too.

Got the dizzy out. The "roll pin" that holds the gear on the shaft sheared of. Most of it is still in the gear so hopefully I'll have no problems with shrapnel in the oil.

I bought a new shear pin but the hole in the gear is looking oblong which probably led to the failure. I ether have to source a new gear or have it drilled out to fit a larger diameter pin.

More to come...

Took it to the machine shop and had a new hole drilled 90 degrees to the old. $20

Weird eh?

over time the metal got weak from vibrations. Being a pin, there not terribly strong.