So i was doing my HG and had my timing off by one tooth. Turns out it destroyed my dist. I reset the timing to what it is supposed to be. And it fired up and ran good, "until i think the dist skipped" Of course i will replace it but my question is.

Do i have to reset my timing entirely. or can i pull a plug, hit tdc on #1 and re-install new dist?

 

I would suggest timing the chain correctly to avoid future problem. Better safe then sorry, right?

 

If the timing chain is off one tooth then I would correct it or the engine will never run the way that it is supposed to. You cannot correct valve timing by adjusting the ignition timing. What truck model, year and engine are we talking about? Not sure why the distributor would be damaged by the valve timing. How do you know that the timing chain is off by one tooth?

Edit: Sounds like you already corrected the timing. You should be OK to put the new dist in like you described, but I still am not sure how the old dist got damaged.

 

The distributor doesn't care where the timing chain gears are. If your distributor is broken, something else is wrong. Figure that out before you do anything else.

 

^^^ You are right, now get some sleep.