Adjusting the Timing

I have finally gotten the time to remove the old ground cable and install the new one. What a difference! The new one looks great. I'm hoping that once I have the timing figured out, the new ground cable will give me a better circuit to run from.

With the new ground cable on I have turned back to the timing. I think I've figured the timing out. I pulled the valve cover off, and removed the plugs, then figured out a way to advance the engine with a hand crank. After rotating it around a few times, I figured out the sequence of the valves and pistons. From the information I received from Stovebolt.com, I adjusted the timing so that both of the valves on the first piston were up, while the piston was also up. I reconnected everything, tried it and of course no luck. I took everything apart again and pulled out the distributor as well to see if the timing was off by a rotation. I advanced the engine to verify the timing was correct and rotated the distributor 1 time. I reinstalled everything again and tried to start it one more time. No luck, it was still sounding like it wasn't getting any gas. I poured a little into the carburetor bowl to see if that would help. Still no luck. Since I was getting a little frustrated with taking everything apart and putting it back together, I decided to test for spark again, the spark is still good at the coil, I am able to jump about a 1/4", but still nothing at the plugs. I removed the coil and took it in to get tested, everything came back within normal range.

Since everything came back normal, I'm beginning to think that maybe its the distributor or the rotor that is not correct. The gap from the rotor to the points is close to 3/8", quite far when I am only able to get 1/4" jump from the coil. I'm also beginning to wonder if it might be the condenser after asking on Stovebolt again. My next step is to talk to Chev's of the 40's to get their opinion about the gap and condenser.