1991 passat help!!!!

i own a 91 passat dohc 4 valve 2 litre.we have had some gear shifting problems had the wire harness fixed about a yr and a half ago.The car likes to pop in and out of gear,causing us to restart it untill it finds the gears also yesterday the car was chugging and almost stalling and it broke down at the stop light.It just died!!!!!then when we looked the distributor was loose we tightened it but car just seems to whir a lot faster not starting at all,hoping that the timing hasnt gone in the car we were told to try and set the distributor again but before we mess around with it we are seeking advice if it could be the timing in the car,huby thinks its the distributor others say timing?? we are at a loss with the interferance engines hoping no valves have been destroyed.we have replaced the alternator,distributor,rad,rack and pinion spark plug wires and so on.
please should we junk the car,or is it going to cost the kids college funds to fix:P
thanks

Pull the cap & look to see if the distributor turns when you crank the engine. That will tell you if the timing belt broke. It is an interference engine, if the car was driving when the belt went there is a high likelyhood of bent valves.

the timing teeth are sheared off of the belt we were stopped when it died so we were not driving when it broke but i think we will look for a new car and fix this when the time is appropriate thanks for the advice