I have a jumpy tach and the car feels like its misfiring under 2k. I pulled the cap and rotor and found the rust. I've seen some rust on ther cars but not this bad.

 

Not sure about that, could be possible.

I would start with Plugs/Wires/Cap/Rotor before worrying about the distributor. After all that if the problem still exsists then I might look into it. Good Luck!

 

Mine looks the same way and its just 2 years old... So my vote is no. Check the connection from the distrubtor to the coil, then check the plug wires. I had a slightly burnt wire and the tach jumped around some...

 

Mine came from AZ and it was rusty like that as well. I have a tach hooked up and idle is smooth and so is the tach.

I couldn't figure out how to get that thing apart enough to clean it, or I would have, but apparently it will end up looking like that again anyways, so...

 

Check the pickup coil very carefully. Its the yellow and green wores coming out from under the reluctor there in the pic.

Should not be shorted to grd or each other.

U need roughly.350-.5v ac when cranked also.

Very common for the pickup coil insulation to disintegrate over time and/or the yellow/green leads to break near where they exit the coil, directly under the reluctor assembly if u look under it with a mirror or pull the distrib.

later
Jeremy