So....I thought I'd investigate a little misfire. Long story short I think the dizzy was in one cylinder off when installed so all the plug leads were out. I had to pop a few off to get the cap off while I was checking stuff. Put them back on and the car ran like crap. Checked the leads and they all appeared to be mixed up so I started from scratch putting them I'm what I thought was the correct order! Then the car wouldn't start at all.

So I thought screw this and go back to square one. Found TDC and pulled the dizzy and set it back in so it was pointing as best as possible to no.1. Put all the leads on. Couldn't get it started, flames coming out the carb and everything. So I thought I would turn the dizzy the other way...to which I thought it would be really retarding it and would be worse. But it started. Ran pretty well. Let it warm up.

When I check the timing the mark is way off the timing plate now. Its up around 20 degrees or something. So if I turn the dizzy counter clockwise it advances. And vice versa lol

does that mean I was at tdc on the wrong stroke and the dizzy is actually 180 out or something? Even though its running fine and revs up nicely. I havnt taken it for a drive yet though

 

Counter-clockwise is advance. Clockwise is retard.
A no-start with backfiring through the carb is either a distributor 180 out, or the ignition wires not on the correct terminals. It will not run at all if 180 out...

 

Ah right. I could of sworn you turned it clockwise to advance it. Oh well!

Only mystery now is why the timing is way up at 20 degrees or whatever when it was at 10 degrees last time I set it. And the idle is good where it is. If I advance it more it runs worse

 

The plug wires can be positioned anywhere on the cap as long as #1 plug wire is at the position where the rotor is when the #1 piston is at TDC on the compression stroke. Sounds easy but so many people still seem to screw it up.

So lets start from the beginning, you've had the distributor cap off but have not pulled the distributor out of the engine correct?
You tried to put the plug wires back onto the cap assuming #1 is roughly at the 5 o'clock position?
You need to keep rotating the distributor counter clockwise to make the engine run better but now all the plug wires are getting twisted around the cap?

Assuming all this is correct, position the distributor close to where you think isn't going to run better and rotate the plug wires around the cap so that #1 is back to roughly the 5 o'clock position.

It's very common to get 5 and 7 mixed up because the are beside each other on the cap and in the block.
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If the distributor has been pulled then it's possible the firing order is 180* out. If so, do this procedure.
Remove the #1 spark plug and put some tissue in the hole. Bar the engine over until the tissue gets blown out.
Look at the timing marks on the balancer. You should be very close to TDC and if it isn't bar the engine back to line up the marks. This now confirms the engine is at #1 TDC on the compression stroke.

If the distributor is in the engine, remove the cap to see where the rotor is pointed. It should be pointing to roughly the 5 o'clock position. If it isn't, you need to pull the distributor and drop it back in until the rotor is in the correct position. Every time you try to correct the position, the oil pump drive will have to be turned with a screwdriver to allow the distributor to line back up and drop down onto the pump shaft.

Once all that's done, put the plug wires back on. Firing order is clockwise rotation. Timing is not set at this point so advance it slightly so that you can start the engine and set the timing.