I bought my 15 year old a 79 pace car not running. When I got it the timing belt cover was off. Clearly it was sitting a while but a cool project! The car will not fire. Has spark, compression and fuel. It "appears" to look like the distributor does not point to #1 when on TDC. I only mark I find on the timing belt gears and thats on the top gear. Does anyone have any instruction on how to replace this??

 

when you turn the motor over does the cam also turn ?

 

Yes it does.

 

Is it possible the belt is worn enough to let the distributor skip a cog?

 

it is very unlikely it would have jumped one or two teeth .. there are numerous pictures and videos on you tube and google images on where the timing marks are located .. do you have the balancer off the bottom of the engine .. the pictures i find indicate that the balancer must be removed to access top dead center with number 1 piston ...study the pictures .. i think you will get it ..