I changed the sparkplugs on my 94 3.0L Aerostar today (what a joy). The van still ran rough so I decided to look at the rotor and cap.

I replaced them until I could order new parts and thought I had the rotor seated properly but when I turned over the engine I heard a pop ...The tailpiece on the rotor snapped off and fell in the distributor.

What do I need to do to retreive the tailpiece or is the distributor cooked?

The piece that broke off was the plastic tail on the shaft of the rotor.
I am hoping I can use my shop vac to suck it out of the distributor. Its just that I dont know where or how far the piece fell into the distributor and if it could have done any damage. Im not knowlegable about the inner workings of a distributor.

Does that sound like a reasonable plan?

thanks

 

You should be able to take out the two screws (1) on top and remove the Armature (3). Then you can reach in and take the broken part out. Your 3.0 should look the same as the diagram below.

 

If you can't get it out, then pull the distributor out. If you mark everything, it will go back in with no trouble.

 

Good News...

But first, Thank you for this site and everyone who contributes their knowledge. This site is invaluable.

With alot of patience, a mirror, light and scewdriver I was able to locate and retrieve the broken piece. I will replace the rotor and cap with a BWD select (borg warner?) from pepboys. I would prefer ford parts but am so excited to get this back together I cant wait the 4-5days to receive my order from directfordparts.com (has anyone used them?). I bought a dpfe sensor from them for my 97 f150 at 50% less than my local dealer. It was my first transaction with them. They assure me that their parts are new and genuine (at least the parts I asked about).

Anyway I will see if this runs and let you know the outcome. I was dreading having to take out the distributor without having done it before and especially with tight clearance issues when working on an aerostar.

I was wondering for future reference...if this distributor had not been a closed bowl type what would have been the outcome?
A neighbor told me that since it was plastic and not metal that fell in it would have been chewed up so fine in the gears and spit into the crankshaft that it would have no consequense...is that so?

thanks again

 

Maybe, but it probably would have got sucked up into the oil pickup screen and half clogged it.

 

Installed new rotor and cap and the van started right up. It idles fine but on a test drive it misses noticeably between 45-65 mph and especially with a/c on.
I still have the original wires at 128000 miles.

I looked through the dog house while everything was dark and saw the #1 wire sparking and also the coil pak? I also heard a snapping sound either from the distributor or the #1 wire at the same time the engine faltered/missed. The other wires dont seem to be sparking though.

I am assuming I need to replace the wires unless the symptoms mean something more specific?

 

Sounds like bad wires or plugs and it could also be that the plugs are gaped too wide (worn).

 

I installed motorcraft plugs before rotor episode.

Plugs were sent to me by direct ford parts according to my vin# they sent agsf-32pm.

I regapped them from factory .050 to .043.

thanks

 

Thanks for your help.

I have another post related to this on the Aerostar thread under "need help with codes".