97 Tacoma 2.4 no start

Took me a few weeks to finally get it started-as i pulled out distributor coil to check resistance i kinda tugged on the condensor and the wire broke off in the middle-i replaced the condensor and had to re-gap the pick up coil-when i had checked the spark when it first died a friend said it looked weak-dont know if condensor was grounding out the positive side of coil or the pickup coil had to big of a gap - engine finally fired up after doing these two things to distributor-after 355k miles now i want to purchase toyota distributor housing $200 and replace drive gear on the exhaust camshaft!! Im going to use my coil pick-up- coil- condensor- cap and rotor!! My distributor has been spinning since it left the factory in 1997-surely the shaft has to have some extra play !!

 

Can you rebuild it? I rebuilt the distributor on my 1992 Camry because it was leaking oil into it.

I got the part number off the bearing and measured the seal and ordered it that way. Gapped everything to spec and replaced the coil because it was cracked.

I personally wouldn't worry about the drive being worn cause the distributor is always idly spinning from the power of the camshaft so unless you're decelerating it's always gonna be tight to the drive. The drive may even be offset a little bit so that it's always running tight. I'd just set the timing with a light and be on my way

 

Thats another question i have, you can barely move the distributor with bolts loosened to set timing-i have read the timing is set at factory!

 

I've never owned your truck so I can't say for certain it can be adjusted but if it can be then the bolt holes will be slotted.

I also don't know what the exact procedure would be as i've only set base timing on Toyotas that were OBD1 where you had to put the car in diag/service mode by shorting (I believe) TE and E1 terminals together. You may still have that diagnostic port under the hood somewhere as i've seen OBD2 Toyota's which retained the OBD1 port, but i'm not a Toyota Mechanic

Edit: based on the pictures i've seen on rockauto, your distributer is not field adjustable.... If it were my vehicle and there were timing marks on the crank, I would check the timing before removal and if it was off by more than a few degrees I would just slot the mounting holes while it was out so I could adjust timing after reinstallation.

 

When the diagnostic port is used I believe the check engine light flashes revealing the DTCs - are those trouble codes in memory - like if the battery cables were removed OB2 trouble codes would be erased - are OBD1 codes stored even if battery is disconnected? I'm gonna look into this - to be honest I'm confused - I swear my distributor can be turned slightly and the aftermarket one I just looked at on Amazon was fixed!! You made some intelligent remarks about the subject- good job!!

 

Trouble codes only store "softly" meaning if the battery is disconnected they will clear. Only code that will populate when you reconnect the battery is a P1000 which just means the drive cycle for the monitors have not ran