I have a 96 F-150 throwing the P0320 code, the Distributor was replaced a little over 2 years ago, plugs and wires are about 3 years old, it has a brand new coil pack and ICM which tested out good at the parts store. the only thing I can think of is the pick coil went bad in the distributor. Can it be changed without pulling the whole distributor.

 

You'll need to pull the distributor, drive the roll pin out, use a gear puller to pull the cam gear. That will allow you replace the stator (pip).

It's not the easiest job, but can be done. The roll pin is offset, so take care removing it.

 

I tried that once. Got as far as removing the roll pin. After that it magically flew out of my hands into the trash can and pulled one from my spare engine and never looked back. I guess my jig I made for the press wasn't engineered correctly. But it is possible. After some measuring of how much the gear gets pushed down the shaft.

 

I don't remember it being that difficult. I did look for and obtain a special puller they make for the job. For the final position of the drive gear I was able to manipulate it with a hex driver in the end of the shaft and vise grips on the neck of the gear. I'm about to do it again because the Motorcraft pickup I installed is only putting out a 2V PIP signal, and won't run with the SPOUT pulled. From what I've read it shouldn't run at all, but it does run, and runs well with the SPOUT IN.

 

You may also like to read this link:
https://www.yourmechanic.com/article...-jamahl-walker

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I went ahead just changed out the distributor, and found a few things along the way. the 2 year old distributor wasnt tightened down at the shop that did the work, i put the socket on the retaining bolt and it was hand tight. I pulled that unit out which the shop told me was a rebuilt unit and found that the cover that goes over the pickup coil was missing one of the 2 screws and the cover was loose being held by the one screw not even tightened up. Seems to be a little quality control problems between the shop and the rebuild facility. Going to the shop in the morning, I hate paying for work not done correctly, especially since these are supposed to be a certified mechanic. I'm just an old retire squid and can figure out that that wasn't right.