The rotor metal doesn't look bad. The cap looks like it had been misplaced in the past based on the marks at the base. The burned up center wire terminal is not related, it's an electrical issue. Probably a bad center wire or it was not fully seated, or there was contamination that allowed conduction past the rubber seal.

Since you have new parts I'd just run them for a while and examine them after some time.

Edited October 19Oct 19 by Zed Head
burnt > burned burnt? - somehow I became English

The rotor metal doesn't look bad. The cap looks like it had been misplaced in the past based on the marks at the base. The burnt up center wire terminal is not related, it's an electrical issue. Probably a bad center wire or it was not fully seated, or there was contamination that allowed conduction past the rubber seal. The rotor metal doesn't look bad. The cap looks like it had been misplaced in the past based on the marks at the base. The burnt up center wire terminal is not related, it's an electrical issue. Probably a bad center wire or it was not fully seated, or there was contamination that allowed conduction past the rubber seal.

4 minutes ago, Zed Head said:

Since you have new parts I'd just run them for a while and examine them after some time.

With the history of the old teeth getting ground down and the new getting cuts on it almost immediately, you don’t think it could be a problem though? Stuff getting damaged like this just seems not great I’d think.

There’s something else happening here that we can’t see on our end. Something somewhere is not seated correctly.

2 hours ago, Yarb said:

There’s something else happening here that we can’t see on our end. Something somewhere is not seated correctly.

any clue where to look or what video to make for you guys?

I would remove the distributor, put the cap back on, and spin it by hand while trying to make the rotor hit the electrodes. Maybe you'll notice something.

42 minutes ago, Zed Head said:

I would remove the distributor, put the cap back on, and spin it by hand while trying to make the rotor hit the electrodes. Maybe you'll notice something.

I'd prefer not to do that since I'd need to re-time the dist. Do you have any other ideas?

There are marks on the base plate, or you could mark it yourself.

I don't really see any marks on your new parts. I'd just run it and see what happens. After making sure that center/coil wire was firmly seated. Did you get a new coil wire? If the contact at the end of the wire had a bad connection it might cause heat even if it was fully seated.

39 minutes ago, chaseincats said:

I'd prefer not to do that since I'd need to re-time the dist.

If you take the whole distributor off as a unit, it doesn't change the timing (except for the small amount of play in the mounting bolt holes).

By "as a unit", I mean like this. The engagement shaft is asymmetric and only fits one way. You can pull the whole thing and put it back and not change the timing:

Is the location (cylinder) that gets chewed up always in the same spot? I'm wondering if maybe the distributor shaft is bent.

If you pull it, it would be easy to spin it by hand and watch to see if the air gap changes as you spin it. The air gap should be the same for all positions of the shaft, but if it's not, the shaft might be tweaked.

8 minutes ago, Captain Obvious said:

Is the location (cylinder) that gets chewed up always in the same spot? I'm wondering if maybe the distributor shaft is bent.

If you pull it, it would be easy to spin it by hand and watch to see if the air gap changes as you spin it. The air gap should be the same for all positions of the shaft, but if it's not, the shaft might be tweaked.

I think I'm not understanding your question - all 6 teeth on the caps show identical wear.

13 minutes ago, chaseincats said:

all 6 teeth on the caps show identical wear.

Got it. Yeah, I'd pull the distributor unit off and spin the shaft and watch how it looks when you spin it.

Take a look both with and without a rotor installed, and as Zed Head mentioned, also put the rotor and cap on and see if you can hear it making contact inside as you spin it.

22 hours ago, Captain Obvious said:

Got it. Yeah, I'd pull the distributor unit off and spin the shaft and watch how it looks when you spin it.

Take a look both with and without a rotor installed, and as Zed Head mentioned, also put the rotor and cap on and see if you can hear it making contact inside as you spin it.

Ok just did and made a video for you guys here

Spinning the distributor without the rotor on it looks smooth, with the rotor on you can see its not sitting 100% parallel with the unit (i think). You can push the edge down and move it a tiny bit. There's a groove below the rotor that looks like an o-ring could go there, is it missing, or is that groove to hold the rotor in?

I haven't put the distributor back in, so please let me know if there are any other videos with it you'd want.

Regarding hearing scaping with the cap on - I don't hear anything which is strange considering the scratches on the cap's teeth.

EDIT:

Regarding the melted dist cap area where the coil wire plugs in - I remembered that this has always been the case regardless of which distributor is even with brand new wires. I wonder if its that switch on my Jacob Electric coil @Zed Head was talking about?

I put the old rotor on and it doesn't have the wobble shown in the video in the above link (I then put the new rotor on to confirm it still had that wobble, and it does).

Edited October 20Oct 20 by chaseincats
added additional information