a question about distributors

my brother and his friend were replacing the plug and wires on all of our cars one day and he had a problem with our spirit. he had a bolt that would not want to get loose on the distributor cap. they found out that there were some pieces inside the distributor that were not aligned properly because of his battle with the bolt.
my question, is can a distributor with pieces inside it still misaligned, cause misfires? i have never been inside my distributor so i dont know much about them. right after he replaced the plugs and wires, the car started misfiring, which it never did before. ive since replaced the plugs and wires and the problem remains.

Simply...Yes