someotherguy
Truly Awesome
Some of the aftermarket replacement distributors for the Vortec engine are metal bodied. I bought a Cardone brand one for a '96 7.4 and it was metal. You're kind of taking your chances with aftermarket stuff like that, not all of it is good. I replaced it not because of broken tabs, those were fine, but because it had bad wear that was letting the shaft flop all around and it was actually breaking the ridges off the plastic on top of the rotor, because it was smacking the terminals inside the cap. 146K miles or so on it.
If you have a plastic Vortec distributor that doesn't yet have broken tabs, best way to keep it like that is to re-use your existing cap screws when you replace the cap. They have a far better chance of going back in right, than the new screws. If they do break, and the distributor is otherwise fine, I'd just zip-tie it. No difference in how it works and replacing is a PITA to do 100% correctly (requires a scan tool that can read the cam retard angle - you don't set these with a timing light.)
Richard
If you have a plastic Vortec distributor that doesn't yet have broken tabs, best way to keep it like that is to re-use your existing cap screws when you replace the cap. They have a far better chance of going back in right, than the new screws. If they do break, and the distributor is otherwise fine, I'd just zip-tie it. No difference in how it works and replacing is a PITA to do 100% correctly (requires a scan tool that can read the cam retard angle - you don't set these with a timing light.)
Richard
