Thought I had the car running fine after the carburetor issue but apparently I did something with the distributor. The timing mark is way off from where it should be. When standing in front of the engine the mark on the balancer is way to the left of the pointer on the engine (after TDC?) When I turn the distributor back to the usual location the engine stalls at idle. What did I do to the distributor?

 

so are you using plug 1 as plug closest to radiator on Passenger side of car?

At what RPM is the mark far to the left? It will change based on speed because of Mech and vac advance. Plus there is some initial timing in there as well.

On your damper wheel I would find the TDC mark and put a white chalk line at TDC.
If you dont have degree marks on the damper hopefully you have a dial back timing light, If not you can buy timing tape to place on the damper if you know its diameter. You might be able to find some to print out as well and glue it on.

You want about 8 to 12 deg of initial timing unplug any vac advance stuff and let the engine idle. You should see something like 10 deg advance (firing before TDC to accommodate for the amount of time it takes the fuel to burn)

as you increase RPM you should see the timing advance up to about 32deg around 3,000 rpm and not advance any further (RPM for max advance is controlled by springs)

With the Vac advance hooked up you should +10 degrees at 3,000 RPM so 42 deg of advance.

With Vac advance hooked up at idle you may not see an increase depending on which vac port you connected to. By default you should choose timed vac port it will be the port above the carb throttle plates and not activate until the throttle is opened a few degrees. Manifold vac will activate at idle and will boost idle advance by 10 deg as well.

 

twisting the Dizzy clockwise will advance timing

 

You are correct. Twerking the distributor position and idle speed got everything where it belongs.

This was one of those times I lost confidence and thought I might have done something really bad. Thanks for the comments and help. Now on to finishing the restoration.

 

cool.... If you've got more questions just ask we probably will be able to help guide you to an answer!
Good luck with the rest of the project!

 

For those who might not be aware: The front damper with it's pulley is a combination part having the front part of the pulley assembly bonded to an inner damper part which fits onto the crankshaft. The rubber bond between the two parts is known to fail, allowing the outer "ring" with it's timing marks to rotate slightly out of place, unbeknownst to the tuner, which results in erroneous timing mark location. imp