SOLVED!....sort of. Where's there's spark.. there's no fire!

When that 3/8" X 1" hold-down bolt is tight you couldn't make that distributor move with an 18" pipe wrench. Dry bushings have to seize before they would break the gear and guess what - the oil pump that drives off the slot on the very bottom of the distributor shaft consumes something like 100 times more energy than spinning a shaft with a magnetic reluctor. Broken roll pins are not uncommon with Ford or GM's. This about covers what I wanted to convey...