i'm sorry if i'm posting this to the wrong section, i'm new here and still learning the forums. i need help with my '79 360.. i was driving to work the other day and the jeep was running great. i came to a stop sign, and went to go, i gave it a little more gas than usual because a car was bearing down on me and pop!! the engine backfired through the carb and died. i tried and tried to restart it but it wasnt happening. a buddy of mine came by to look at it and we decided it was the distributor. we pulled the distributor out and the teeth at the end that engage with the cam were all chewed up. we looked down the hole to see the cam gear and low and behold they were all chewed up too. the distributor wasnt engaging correctly with the cam and the timing is all screwed up. now here's my question, it appears without a doubt that i will need a new distributor gear and cam .. this is not so good. i'm on a tight budget being just out of school and supporting myself for the first time. what is invlolved with changing the cam? is this something that my buddy and i can do? he was mentioning something about having to change the cam bushings. he says if this is the case we cannot do it ourselves because it's too involved. also, he is a chevy guy and is worried about the procedures of doing a cam swap on the amc.. this is my daily driver so i need to get it fixed as soon as possible. has anyone ever heard of this problem? and what is the best way for me to go about fixing it? thanks guys.