Died & won't start

A couple of months back, my 1994 Mazda 626 died on the interstate & hasn't started since. My fiancee was driving it. She said she was just driving as normal when she looked down & the RPMs were at zero. Prior to this when I'd drive it, it would be touchy when being started. Sometimes it would semi-start, sputter then die. It would not immediately re-start. I'd have to let it sit for a minute & make sure everything had stopped (including the power antenna). Then I'd try again making sure it got a good rollover & start & it'd be okay. There were also acouple of times whe she was driving it & it would just die on her at a stop light. Eventually after a bit it would start up.

My neighbor, a mechanic, after listening to it, said there was no compression & therefore the timing belt. Well, after spending a day & a half getting down to the timing belt, I find out that is not it. My neighbor came & looked at it again (now that it was all taken apart) and he now says it must be the distributor. Does this sound correct?

Also, when he was messing with the distributor, he did not mark the timing. I am getting a used distributor off of ebay. Can anyone tell me how to time it?

is i carborated? and have you changed the spark plugs before and how many miles are on it.

I'm having the same problem with my 94 probe gt. A couple of months back I fixed the distributor, but before I did get if fixed my car would not start at all, so are you getting spark to your spark plugs I don't think that's your problem. Now this time it sounds like we're having the same problem. Have you changed the fuel filter recently? I chaged minr a couple of days ago and you could'nt even breath through it so I thought that that was the problem, and the car ran better for two days, then I was driving it and it just died. I know it's not my distributor, and the spark plugs and fuel filter were just changed. I'd see if it's the fuel filter. It's kind of a pain to get at, but have your girlfriend help you if she's got small hands. I hope I've shed some light.

SOLUTION!!!
http://forums.probetalk.com/showthread.php?t=1701081990
This is very common, make sure to solder all connections on the HEI and get a solid ground (i used neg battary termanal)
shouldn't have gotten that disty off of ebay. most likely doesn't have a warenty, and will not be reliable (not that remanufactured ones are either, but atleast you have a warenty.)
here is how you set your timing and stuff.
http://forums.probetalk.com/showthread.php?t=1701026318
Your neighbor mechanic doesn't know everything, a good tool to use is www.probetalk.com hopefully this helps you.
-Tom