Crack in distributor housing - still useful or toss in trash?

[autexil]

Hi all,

1999 Honda Accord ULEV coupe with 200K miles. Has the Hitachi distributor (model D4T97-03). Distributor had oil leak which dripped onto the heater inlet hose beneath it - ruptured the hose, easily replaced.

Decided to partially rebuild the distributor myself (new cap, new rotor, new inner shaft seal, and external o-ring). Disassembly went well...

Until it came time to remove the pin holding the gear to the shaft. Using a pin punch and sledge like others have recommended in similar threads, I managed to get the pin out. But apparently my striking needs work because somehow I managed to crack the distributor where the O-ring sits. Hard to describe in words, but it's the lipped section of metal which the O-ring is stretched over before settling into it's groove. I attached a picture that probably explains it much better.

At this point, I was wondering if the housing is toast? Or does that cracked section have little effect on function? I can probably find a used OEM locally for 50-60 bucks and transfer all the guts from mine so this isn't the end of the world. But I'd hate to throw out a perfectly functional part if it's still useful.

Thanks for bothering to read all that. Any and all advice is welcome.

 

[xci.ed6]

Useable, but I would trash it with how many/cheap they are.

 

[autexil]

Thank you for replying, much appreciated. I lined up a local seller but he ended up flaking on me so I went ahead and reused the old housing. The car started up fine. The only thing that I noticed was what I thought to be increased engine vibration (but that's purely subjective, I don't have any sort of reference for vibration before pulling the distributor). I'll put the car through its paces tomorrow when I have more time.

For anyone considering rebuilding one of these Hitachi distributors, I highly recommend having a solid vise to hold the gear in place as you whack at the pin. I originally started with a rinky dink general use vise and had a devil of a time keeping the strikes straight on the pin. Today I stopped by the hardware store and bought a much more substantial vise and that made driving the pin back in a breeze. Also take plenty of pictures after you pull the distributor, especially of the gear's orientation AND the orientation of the rotor. I realized how easy it was to put the gear back on 180 degrees off if you weren't paying attention - and that would mean having to whack the pin back off (ugh).

Thanks again for the advice!