NickD1210

I've recently been having a misfiring problem on my 96 4.0 HO. It started off as a little hiccup when giving it some throttle then progressively got worse over a couple weeks . So figuring an ignition problem I replace the coil, cap,and rotor. When I pulled the cap I noticed globs of metal on three of the contacts so I figured bingo. Well it ran good for a brief period then back to the jumpy throttle. Now at the same time I've noticed a chirping noise that has become more noticeable. Its not the water pump or pulleys I've traced the noise to the side of the engine and believe its the distributor but I don't want to keep throwing parts at the problem. Now when I pulled the cap I checked for play in the distributor shaft and it was fine. Any help with this annoying problem would be greatly appreciated.