I'm walking a road many before me have traveled. The original distributor in my '80ZX has about a half inch of play in the shaft in either direction from a stationary position.
 
The vacuum advance has been inoperable for about a year.
 
I have been monitoring the distributor for some time, knowing that it is in its final days.
 
Today on a drive, I noticed some hesitation, above that which is observed running a capped vacuum advance.
 
Obviously I will not drive the car until replace it. Probably with the 1-2-3 Bluetooth distributor.
 
The engine has about 800 miles in it since rebuild with mild cam. My question for the group is:
 
Could I have possibly damaged my engine somehow running the distributor with more play than it should have? If I'm being honest, it's been slightly out of spec for shaft play for several months(of driving). But I only noticed the excessive play today, after about a 30 mile drive.
 
Thanks for advice as always.
 
(Tried to post a video but this cheap phone is not compatible with the future)

Wonder why they keep using a part that must be destroying the product's quality credibility.  How much could they be saving, if anything?
[mention=28929]123ignitionusa[/mention]

Couldn’t agree more! My spare Beru cap I bought with the 123 purchase arrived with the centre electrode broken off!!! 123 charged me £45 for the worthless spare cap!!





The one that it came fitted with, fell off while driving and very nearly stranded me in a dark fast road without a safe place to pull over :o . I eventually got it started on the battery’s last Joul and limped home to find the electrode sitting next to the aluminium ring inside the dizzy!

I was very lucky it didn’t kill the mechanism inside!