Nissan Repair: 1995 Nissan Altima, nissan altima, shaft seal

Question
Hi, the car has 116K miles on it with automatic trans.  Didn't have any problem since the day I bought it last year until a couple of months ago. The car starts to jerks while driving and rpm tends to jump up and down and finally died and wont start until few minutes later.  Took it to my mechanic replaced the distributor and solved the problem.  But now after a little bit over a month, the problem came back although not as bad.  It started to jerk with the rpm jump up and down between 1-4.  What I noticed this time is that it happens only when it climbs a hill (the worst)it just wont accelerate even when I put on 2nd with the rpm jumps between 1-3 and on highway when running 55-60 mph apply breaks and it won't accelerate, seems to stall.  It picks up speed again after a good couple of minutes.  Is this transmission problem or anything minor?  I don't think I want to spend too much money (>$500)to fix it.  Another question is will it die randomly if I don't fix it?  Thank you so much for your time and help.

Answer
Dee,

The shaft seal on the new distributor is probably defective as well as the car probably has excesive blowby with the miles on it.  So, basically a combination of the seal being defective on the rebuilt distributor and excessive engine rign blowby is causing your problem.  If it is under warranty get the distributor replaced or work a deal to get it at reduced cost since you paid good money to get it replaced.  Second, have the engine compression tested to see how much blowby it has.  If it it excessive the car is just going to do the same thing down the road and you might consider a rebuild on the engine or trade the car.