i believe my distributer to be off by a tooth right now.
it runs good by ear when timed but the timing marks don't line up
it seems to be retarded beyond belief. ive tried bring the timing up close to the tab but the car will ping so i know the timing is set advanced can i continue to run by ear and where the car performs well or should i try to rotate the dist gear one tooth.
i have a 87 tpi mass air flow car 5.7 litre

 

Put the #1 cylinder to TDC. Take off the dist. cap. The rotor should be pointing to the #1 plug wire. If it is off, you can pull the dist. and spin it a tooth. If your wires are long enough, you might be able to spin the dist. housing enought to line it up. Then get a timing light and adjust the timing. You ear might just deceive you.
FBird

 

Sounds to me like either you have an aftermarket timing cover, with the bolt-on timing tab at about 1:30, but you have a balancer with the mark placed at the 12:00 position; or your balancer's outer ring has slipped. That happens all the time. Why GM decided to put the timing mark on something that's only loosely associated with the crank by a blob of spooge, I'll never know, but they did it just the same. And if the spooge tears up, the mark moves.

 

there is no such thing as off a tooth even if a lot of people like to say it or believe it. as long as you can spin the distributor without it hitting anything it's fine. i'd look into what RB had to say about the timing tabs and marks not being in correct location.