GTV6 Distributor Agony (kinda long)

["Herbert Neily" <neily@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

    Two weeks ago, my '84 GTV6 began intermittently not starting - the
engine would turn over, but I would get no ignition.  The condition was
seemingly independent of ambient temperature and whether or not the engine
was warm.
    I went through the usual rituals - checked the fuses and cleaned all
contacts, fixed a questionable connection at the distributor's hall effect
pick-up connector, checked the ignition coil's primary and secondary
windings' resistance (OK)  and verified that the coil was receiving 12 volts
at the primary terminals.  Still, no spark from the secondary terminal.
    I pulled the plugs - #3 through #6 looked normal, but #2 was crudded up
with deposits and #1 was fuel soaked and covered with black soot.  I pulled
the injectors and shipped them off to Cruizin Performance (Big Rapids, MI)
for cleaning and blueprinting.  I hope to receive them back sometime next
week.
    In the meantime, I've continued to clean electrical contacts, grounds
etc.  Today, I decided to open up the distributor to take a look at the hall
effect pick-up leads, etc. [Cue the Ominous Music]  I removed the retaining
ring that holds the sector disk in place.  Then, per Page 05-26 of the
Milano service manual, I "Prise[ed] sector disk out with the driving
key...."  Well, I failed to understand that the driving key (picture a
half-size Zippo lighter flint) would simply fall into the distributor (it
did) unless I had the foresight (I didn't) to have a magnet in contact with
the key as I pulled up on the sector disk.  So, I have to get the key out of
the distributor.
   To access the bowels of the distributor, it looks like I've got to remove
the plastic dust shield that sits on top of the hall effect pick-up.  I've
removed the second retaining ring above the plastic shield ("plastic disk"
per the manual).  The manual breezily instructs me to "Remove pressed-in
plastic disk".  The plastic disk seems to interlock, via some flimsy looking
plastic fingers, with a metal ring around the distributor shaft.  Seemingly,
the whole assembly should simply slip up and off of the distributor shaft.
However, the metal ring seems affixed to the shaft in some way.  Now, maybe
the plastic fingers are flexible enough to slip off of the inner ring, but
it doesn't look that way and I'm feeling far from lucky right now.  I've
already screwed up by dropping the key in the distributor, so I really don't
want to force and break the plastic disk.
   Does anyone have any words of wisdom on this?  Also, a question that I
should have asked *yesterday*:  Are there any hall effect pick-up
diagnostics that can be done with a multimeter or some other ordinary tool?
Replacement pick-ups seem to run about $115 plus based on my research to
date - not conducive to simply giving it a try.  I've had pick-ups fail on
three Chrysler K-car derivatives, but those non-Bosch pick-ups could be had
for $35 and I didn't have to deal with the Marquis de Sade Bosch distributor
in the process.  Thanks in advance.
Bert Neily
Raleigh, NC, USA
'84 GTV6, 68k mi.    "Hey, that thing got a Hemi?!"
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