Well, I guess the price of a new distributor would be worth eliminating it from the possibilities before I yank the engine (or at least the heads).
I had the old distributor out when I changed the intake. It seemed OK - doesn't seem like there's that much that could go wrong (it's an HEI). I cleaned it up but didn't rebuild it, though.
What would be wrong with the distributor that could cause this? It doesn't seem to be that comples of a device.
Bodega