I removed the distributor out of my 85 dodge d150 pick up and found the drive gear broken off. bits of it could be seen down inside the engine. what am i up against here ? i know i can probably reuse distributor if i replace drive gear but what about broken p[ieces down inside shaft area. is this going to effect something and how do i get them out?[:@]

 

the distributor gear drive discovery all came about about as a result of previous trouble i was having with stalling and then no start until after a couple of hours. i had replaced coil-dist. cap-rotor. and finially was advised it was probably the magnetic pickup/ as i went to inveatigate the pickup assembly to reove it for replacement i noticed the shaft with the reluctor was movingup and down and the reluctor spun all thge way around and this didnt seem right. so i decided to remove distributor and discovered the drive gear damaged. could this of been problem all along or did i do something in between?

 

You need to get as much of the broken pieces out. And inspect the cam shaft gear to see if it is okay. If the cam shaft is damage, time for a new cam shaft.

 

Also, change the oil and see if any parts wash out with the oil. Save all the parts you find to see if your getting close to all of them. Run an aftermarket oil pressure gauge right to the pump. This is easy with slants. Shut it down right away if you have an unusual drop. Slants are tough and will take all kinds of abuse, but they must have lots of oil. The oil pump is cake to change if it gets damaged. Good luck.