The short answer is yes, the distributor may have a worn shaft and/or bushing. But you really need to check for spark quality because there are a lot of things that can cause your problem.
Pull the center wire out of the distributor cap, hold it near good ground, turn on the key and try a start. Do you have the requisite, FAT, BLUISH-WHITE SPARK? If you don"t, you need to go through the primary ignition circuit SYSTEMATICALLY, and find out why. You never mentioned checking the point condition. Look for corroded, pitted, or maladjusted points( point gap shuld be 0.022"). Is the coil polarity correct? The wire between the distributor and the coil should be attached to the coil terminal with the same sign as the battery ground. Do you have copper core sprk plug wires? You should have and the isulation should not be cracked or broke on them. Ids the distributor cap cracked or carbon tracked? To check for distributor shaft/bushing wear, rotate the engine til the points are closed and the push radially (from the side) on the distributor shaft and watch the points. They should not move and they certainly should not open. If they do, you"ll want to rebuild the distributor. Any good autoelectric shop can do this for you and it"s cheaper than a rebuilt or new distributor. What plugs are you using and what do the business ends look like? Are they gapped to 0.025"? Any fluffy dry, sooty deposits indicate an overly rich miture? Wet black depoits mean the rings have lost oil control. I prefer Autolite 3116 plugs. They are non-resistor plugs(as opposed to the resistor Autolite 386 plugs in most tune up kits). Whatever you do, DON"T START SWAPPING PARTS OUT! SYSTEMATICALLY check out your ignition system AND THEN REPLACE THE PART THAT IS BAD OR ADJUT THE MALADJUSTED PART. If you spark is good, check the timing and make sure that the advance is working as long as you have the timing light out.. If this all checks out, check out the idle mixture setting. Hope this helps you.
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