[Tspringer]

Uhhhhhhhh turning the engine by hand with a wrench on the crank pully and the ignition turned on could be a bit dangerous... This reluctant motor just may decide to get a tad anxious and people have broken their arms this way.

Remove #1 spark plug. Place a piece of good duct tape over the plug hole in the valve cover. Clean the area and make sure you have a good seal. Rotate the engine (ignition off). . When the tape pops off, you on the compression stroke. Remove tape and place a straight piece of coat hanger into the hole all the way down. Rotate the engine (ignition off). Carefully watch the rod and turn slowly until the piston is clearly at TDC. If you go to far, rotate twice until back on the compression stroke and stop when the piston is as close to TDC as you can get it. Now make sure the rotor is pointing at the #1 plug on the dizzy cap and install / tighten the distributor. The timing should be close enough for it to fire and get a timing light on it.

If it does not fire, but you do have spark, then your problem is probably fuel related, or your cam timing really is way off. If the engine however rotates freely (no apparent piston to valve contact) then the cam timing should be close enough for it to fire.

Good luck and let us know what you find.

Terry