The Nissan Path

I've recently bought a 98 pathfinder 129,xxx miles. Drove it 90 minutes homes and 4 days back and forth from work after. It needs exhaust work and I had a P0300 code for misfiring and bullshit knock sensor code. Was running some diagnostics to see cause of misfire. I was testing plugs pulling one at a time out of the distributor cap to see and make sure I was hearing a change in idle to see if plugs were bad. Well I pulled the 3rd plug car shutoff. Eventually got it started again while pressing down on gas. Stalled out a couple of times, got it started a couple of more times. Finally had it running for 15-20 mins idling but needed to keep my RPMS for it too stay running while in park. So I took it for a ride around my community died out on me again while mid-driving. (Dies out like I ran out of gas). Electronics were working at all times during this. I was Able to get it started with my girlfriends car a few times with a jump. But had to keep my RPMS up as soon as the car started in park.
(Everything electronically worked only tried the jump for shits and giggles)
Well I couldn't get it out of gear without RPMS dropping and truck shutting off. Had a friend tow it home for me. Next morning starts right up. I let it idle for five mins and ran to work in my girls car. Come home no start. I found fine metal shavings inside distributor cap. Can this be a distributor problem? High sqealing noise as well upon acceleration(the barring in the distributor??) in park but will come and go if it starts. From all I've read I see distributor is my promise suspect for this would just like input from others. Every situation is different.
All I have done so far to truck is change oil, oil filter, and clean maf sensor. Oil was very bad and maf sensor didn't seem too dirty just a little dust.

Thanks for reading! Any advice helps! I'm still new too cars but I know the basics!

If you found metal shavings under the distributor cap then there's no point going any further until the distributor is changed. Some here are not very bullish on after market distributors but I've gotten years of trouble free performance on one that I installed and for 75.00 on ebay you could afford to buy one to use and two or three more for spares for less than what Nissan charges.

Had the same thing...replace the distributor and set the timing of course. The shavings are where the distributor has grinded away the top flat surface of the bearing. This is letting the whole assembly sink and bind occasionally.

Thanks for the info Very helful