HELP! PLEASE! components inside distributor are all mangled
 

i have a 1990 dodge dakota that died on me as i accelerated from a stop light.would not start for jesus himself after.so i popped off the distrib cap to check on an old problem with the (pick up coil/hall effect) only to find it was damaged and broken missing a piece i went and got replacement installed it and re ran the leads. still wont start. so i open it back up to find the brand new pick up coil broken in 3 pieces along with a metal and ceramic piece too....

should i have not had the distributor loose while trying to start it....?
(trying to time it too or just make it start
how much for a used distributor ....roughly?
anyone else out there ever had or heard of this?

Something must of be broken and as it spun it just killed everything else. Ya your best bet is to replace the distributor. Used is just about your only choice, try your local junkyard or www.craigslist.org.

there's a guy sellin dodge distributors for like hot rods and custom builds on craigslist but he doesn't think it'll work for a replacement part... def need to change the distributor now though

local wreckers has one for 50$ apparently but they are also unsure if it will work...

how hard is it going to be for me to change this on my own?