83 ford: whats broken?

[MowJo]

I have an old 83' ford with a 4.9 6cyl.

Heres my question. The truck wont start and with the distributor cap off I noticed the rotor isn't moving. Whats more likely, stripped timing gear or broken distributor?

The truck had been driven all day and after a fillup it started and drove about 20' and just died. One other thing I found was that 3 spark plugs were finger loose, which couldn't be good.

Any help is appreciated.

[MowJo]

Its the timing gear. The teeth are sheared right off.

Now I have a new question... when I install the new gear will I have to realign it? If so whats the best way to realign it?

[65hoss]

Ever thought about were the sheared off pieces went????

[DavidD]

To realighn the timing Gears? or did the gear on the bottom of the distributor Shear? Yes either way You need a Book for that truck to show illustrations to lining it all up.