Distributor Rotor Replacement

I was unscrewing the bolt that holds the distributor rotor in place, my free hand was underneath the rotor to catch the bolt and as I was unscrewing the bolt a small ball-bearing fell into my hand.

Questions: Was this ball-bearing supposed to fall out like that? Where does this ball-bearing set in respect to the rotor?

Hum... this is an odd one, its not supposed to be there, leave it out and see if everything is copostetic.

guh! the only place i can imagine that ball bearing having fallen from would be somewhere in the distributor. that whole rod spins. i'm sure it has bearings like that. you may wanna take it off and inspect it closely. it'll probably run fine for a while, but this is a sign that a set of bearings somewhere is about to go. that's my best guess.

Thanks for your replies to my question. It turns out that the ball bearing fell out of the socket tool I was using (the ball bearing goes at the mouth of the tool to hold the different attachments in).

Feels good to solve the problem.