ok, little background first....

Bought a 85 TA that was originally a 305. The people i bought it from had rebuilt a 350. Ran it on the stand then droped it in. They got most of it hooked up and lost intrest. Think the kid went to college or something. I took it over from here. I have most everything hooked back up.

Now the current problem....
When the dist is where i think it should be it cranks fine. but NO SPARK. You turn it 180 and it cranks, backfires through the carb and THERE IS SPARK.

Both ways it wont start. Any ideas???

 

Distributor does not know what postion it's in when you drop it in. It only knows to fire every 90* of engine rotation (45* of distributor rotation). Where the rotor happens to be pointing or what plug terminal it's lined up with when it fires doesn't matter for purposes of spark/no-spark. It fires regardless.

A "sneeze" through the carb is typical for a distributor that is off by 180*.

If it's lined up "right" but won't run it's usually becuase it's too far retarded. Lining things up properly by eye is tricky business if you've never done it before. Advance it by turning the distributor more CCW than you think it should need just using your eye and try again. You'd be surprised how far off you can be.

Of course, always set final timing using a timing light.

 

no matter how you install the distributor you should get spark. It will be at the wrong time in relation to the crank, but you should still get spark. Pull the #1 cylinder up to 8* BTDC and drop in the distributor. Make a mark on the housing where the #1 terminal on the cap is and rotate the housing until the rotor lines up with that mark. Then put the cap/wires back on. If it doesn't start and it's popping through the carb you need more timing. If the starter has a rough time turning the motor over then you've got too much.