Guys,

don't give me a dumb answer like "yes" because of course they can but DO they? Like, will they generally go bad as commonly as the optical encoder portion?

 

Yes they can go bad.

 

I'd say that 70% of the Opti failures are due to the cap/rotor. The other 30% is the back 1/2 of the Opti, including the optical cam position sensor and the bearing. Its a distributor. ALL distributors can experience failures of the cap. Why would the Opti be any different?

Burned terminals, carbon tracking, loss of dielectric strength in the compound that covers the cap and isolates the internal cap wiring, a crack, damage from a rotor that's being pushed into it by an incorrect cam dowel pin length, or that decided to come loose when one of the screws fell out.

 

is there anyway that we can tell if its the cap and rotor and not the whole dist that need replacing>

 

What he said...

I have been tracking a high RPM miss and have replaced everything electrical (I am not bull****ting anyone here, we are talking battery to plugs) except the distributor portion of the opti. I always would replace the optical portion since that was what everyone said was the problem.

 

If there is a problem with the optical sensor, you will get trouble codes for loss of the high resolution signal, and for loss of the low resolution signal. There are no codes directly related to the cap/rotor failure. But with your OBD-II 96, you should be getting misfire codes.