there was oil leaking from my distributor, so i pulled it and replaced the o-ring thereby fixing the oil leak. i put the distributor back in where it was, i thought. the timing light says the timing is at 14 degrees, where it was before when the car ran fine, but the car is not running fine. it seems to idle ok when cold, but as the temperature comes up the idle starts to surge and then the engine dies. also, when you rev the engine and then let off, the RPMs drop far below idle and the car either barely recovers or dies.

am i just off a tooth? would the timing light show the correct timing if i was off a tooth?

 

the car will start and run with a tooth off but fuel sincronization would be off.....I'd try re stabbing the distributor......roll it up on tdc then restab according to instructions...do a search on here...there are plenty of them in the stickys with pictures and then set base timing with spout connector removed...then reinstall spout and see how it runs

 

it's an 84... it's carbed, the distributor is a little bit different (i think). but yeah i will be restabbing the distributor soon. fuel synchronization is a non-issue on a carbureted engine.

[EDIT] search function isn't working right now for me... everything i search for returns "no results"