Okay Nate, i got everything back together with teh timing mark in the window. 1st thing i noticed was that the rotor was not 90 deg to right of straight ahead ( pointed at the fender). It was 1/6 of a turn (60 degs) off. Well, of course it won't start. This leads me to believe that the timing gear is off. I insured that the oil pump interface was properly aligned and the result is that the rotor is pointing to the # 4 plug wire in the dizzy cap. Seems odd since when i pull the dizzy out the rotor was at 90 degrees on #1 ( timing mark was not in the window as best i could see).
got to thinking, very dangerous to do but it sometimes helps, we don't have a timing chain! looked in shop manual and sure enough, we have a set of timing gears!! How could i forget that when it only took 15 yrs to put the truck together???? A little further research yielded the info that the oil pump drive may have to be realigned to line up with the dizzy shaft insert! ( Aren't shop manuals helpful!) Well, how about them apples!! So, i'll pull the dizzy for the xxth time and align the timing mark, align the oil pump and the rotor to #1 and give it a whorl.
Oops ! I guess I wasn't clear about that part ~ that's why you need a bent up coathanger , to re-align the oil pump drive slot as the darned thing drifts every time you pull the dizzy out , worse if you turned the engine with no dizzy in there... Keep at it , triangle/chevron on pointer , rotor tip pointing straight at the fender , then give it a whirl , if it doesn't back fire you can loosen the dizzy pinch clamp and twist it a little bit thisa-way and that whilst cranking , be aware that the big ZAP ! you got was from the side of your hand touching the wire leading from the points to the coil ~
Dang! Once i stopped using the oil pump for alignment and pointed the rotor 90 degs, it started on the 1st turn!!! Timing was only off a little. I set the new points at 0.019 per the manual, the dwell was about 34 deg. thanks Nate!!
You're Entirely Welcome ! Simple , once you get the hang of it Now , you can go amaze your V-ate Hot Rod buddies by installing , indexing and base - timing thier new Mallory distributors....
Putput, If the TDC mark was aligned as earlier mentioned, you are only a few degrees off. Provided when you sank the distributor it lined up where is was supose to. turn the distributor by hand to advance or retard the timming and it should fire off for you. I just did point to HEI swap on 68 C-10 it was the best thing I cold have ever done. Now there making HEI distributors that look like originals so you don't loose the original look but gain the reliability. Mine is a standard HEI but if your concerned with the looks these distributors are available. Good luck!!!
