Rotor broke. Damage to distributor?

Hi All, I went out to start my van this morning. Cranked, but no start. Checked for and found no spark. Removed distributor cap and saw that the metal part of the rotor had broken off and was sitting at the bottom of the distributor cavity area. Also apparent is what looks like fishing line around the copper coil wiring (though I do not know enough to know if this is the "coil"). The fishing line stuff is sorta brittle, I pulled a bit of it out. Is this normal? I highly doubt it. I'm wondering if I can put a new rotor on and go, or what additional steps might need to be taken. I hesitate to throw a rotor on and drive off because I don't want to do any more damage. Here are a couple of pics. Can anybody shed light on this situation? :cnfsd:
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If I discovered something like that I wouldn't hesitate in replacing the entire distributor. Of course I'm not sure what the used parts market is like where you're at, but for me it's not an issue (I keep spare parts like this around just for such an occasion). If you don't have access to anything used at a reasonable price, then I would pull the distributor, remove the foreign material, and do a thorough inspection according to the IG section of the service manual. Here's a link: http://www.toyotavans.org/community/...TIONSYSTEM.PDF. Distributor inspection starts around page IG-7.

Pay particular attention to the governor shaft inspection part and check thrust & side clearances. If everything checks out to be good, only then would I consider putting a new rotor on and giving it a whirl. Good luck. Tim

PS: Also check the inside of your distributor cap as it likely took a hit when the rotor broke. Tim

Tim, judging from your reaction I take it that the innards of the distributor should look nothing like the image I posted. Last time I bought a distributor was at a yard in Mt. Vernon, WA. I was stuck, and by sheer luck they had one. I paid $45 for it. Rock Auto has them for $155. I'll check salvage yards out here (Boston), but I do not expect to find much. I'll post in the forum's wanted section. If anybody reads this and has a distributor to sell, PM me.

I guess it depends on what that stuff is. Hard to tell from the pictures, but to me it looks like copper shavings??? I guess knowing more about what it is and how it got there could shed more light. If the van sat for a long time with the distributor cap off, then perhaps a squirrel or mouse dropped some chunks of nesting material down there :cnfsd:. I have no idea. If that junk came from somewhere inside your distributor, and if it's metallic, then I'd be very concerned and probably consider the whole thing toast. If however it's something foreign that was dropped in there, and if the shaft play/clearances are good, then I'd just clean it out, replace the rotor, and see what happens. Tim

The distributor does appear to be toast. The copper and fishing line like strands just keep coming out. Funny that I can still easily turn the shaft. Shrapnel from the rotor (I found a mangled rivet) must have worked its way into the shaft as I was cranking the engine. The mess is definitely originating from deep in the shaft. No way this is the work of a rodent. Living in a city a bike/bus/train is much faster transport than an auto, so I don't drive much but I do make a point to take the van out every week or two. Here's a picture of the toast:

Lol, I can't imagine what that is :dizzy:. Very interesting indeed. There shouldn't be anything like that inside the distributor, but I've never dissected one or cut-away cross sections to see what they're made of. But yeah, I'm inclined to agree that thing is toast.........even if that stuff came from an external source. Tim

That's crazy! You're right, it looks like fishing line. The shavings could have come from the posts in the cap if the rotor made contact with them while coming apart(Did you look at the inside of the cap yet?)but the fishing line stuff has me intrigued. I may have to dismantle my spare distributor just to satisfy my curiosity.

The inside of the cap looks normal.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/86-87-88-89-...b709cc&vxp=mtr

Who knows what shape it's in, but it's a good price (free shipping too). If you want it snatch it up fast, because if it's still there in a couple days I'll buy it. Tim