welcome Wim

need to get #1 piston on TDC, on the compression stroke- both valves will be closed..

then put the distributor in with the rotor pointing at the #1 plug wire on the cap.. point it toward the #1 sparkplug..

then turn the distributor about 20* counter clock wise..

make sure the coil and distributor wiring is connected..

and try it..

 

great advice above..

lets go deeper... what type of distributor do you have.. Point type with a window to adjust the points.. HEI ignition with the coil in the cap.. some other kind of ignition distributor..

you did not mention what type of car or truck.. if its a corvette.. does it have transistor ignition...

you said you looked at the valve movements to figure out where TDC is..

its usually better to pull the #1 spark plug and insert a tissue in the spark plug hole.. you can slowly turn the engine using a socket on the alternator pulley bolt .. if you cannot reach the crank center bolt.. you may also use a remote starter button.

with the compression coming up on the #1 cylinder.. stop at 10 degrees before on the timing mark/timing pointer.. if you go past... go 30 degrees back and then bring it back to the 10 before mark.

if you are standing in front of the car.. or beside it on a corvette.. the tip of the ignition rotor should be pointing toward the left front corner of the intake manifold.. it can point in almost any direction.. its just that stock spark plug wires line up better with the rotor pointing forward and slightly to the left/ drivers side ..


now. you have the distributor in.. it usually takes turning the crank two more revolutions to get the distributor to drop onto the oil pump shaft and fully seat the distributor on the intake. bring the engine around and stop at 10 before..

if you have an HEI or other magnetic pickup distributor.. you can turn the housing to align the tips of the pickup coil with the tips of the reluctor.. this is where the ignition module will fire the coil... its called dead stick timing.

if you have points. you can still do this.. you will turn the housing so that when you slightly rotate the rotor against the return spring tension.. the points just open. when the points are closed.. the coil charges.. when the points open. the coil discharges.. again.. this is where the spark is created.

don't forget the distributor housing flange must be seated on the intake manifold surface.. before you put the hold down clamp on it.. or you won't have any oil pump operation..

if you have points.. are you sure that the wiring to the points is in the proper location.. that the points if new are properly adjusted.


Front of engine..

1 2
3 4
5 6
7 8

--1-8
2------4
7------3
--5-6



by the way.. putting the distributor in usually takes less than 4 or 5 minutes.. with presetting the engine..

to check your timing chain for excessive slack.. you may want to use a tight fitting socket on the big crank bolt.. a short extension and a breaker bar.. turn the crank to align the timing slot on the damper to TDC.. then turn the crank the other way.. you will feel the timing chain slack vanish.. less than 9/16 or 16 mm of slack when measured at the outside diameter of the harmonic damper.. if you get over 1/2 or 13mm... its getting time to replace the timing chain set..

 

great to get so many replies! Thanks!
attached a picture of the distributor & ignition.
The timing chain looks new, sprocket wheel looks new. the timing marks are opposite of each other (one down/one up; towards each other). The ignition and distributor look original and are operational; all sparks firing properly.
Ignition placed as descriped by Mr JJLT1
........still not running.....just need 1 more idea...

 

change the rotor.. its burned thru..

i can see the burn marks on the top in that image... bet there are small burn marks thru it on the bottom..

 

with the cam/crank gear marks together, [the crank up and cam down]
that is the compression stroke for #6 cylinder..

if you turn the motor over one more time and up to the ignition timing marks
that will be compression stroke for #1 cylinder..
when you stab the distributor, that's where the rotor should point to #1..

the cam/crank gear marks will both be strait up at 12oc..

 

a friend and i were talking fool proof ways to find compression on #1..

take out all except #1 spark plug

turn the motor... when you start feeling compression.. bring the timing mark to the base timing and stop.. that is where you install the distributor, make sure its dropped on the oil pump shaft... then turn the housing to align the pickup coil with the reluctor. then lock it down..

 

x2 Wayne sounds good

 

'3 gear teeth too early' and it was running. Now you have moved it 3 teeth and it's not running. My guess is that you are seeing #1 TDC on the balancer, but the engine is not at #1 TDC which is the reason why it was running before and presently it is not.

The proper method is verifying your TDC balnacer mark with a piston stop and seeing where the heck the balancer mark is. But, if I were in your shoes, then I would try one thing first. Keep in mind that I've been ripped (cursed at) on other forums for this. Unhook the vacuum advance line and plug it. Take note of where your distributor is installed in relation to the carb, maybe mark the base, have a friend start cranking the motor and spin the distributor as far as the HEI and spark plug wires will allow while he's cranking - it should be close to 90 degrees which is two spark plug locations. If it doesn't start, then rotate all of the plug wires one direction around the distributor being careful not to mess up the firing order. If that doesn't work, then rotate the plug wires back (opposite of the previous move) two positions. Keep doing this, increasing the moves, until it fires. Once it fires and is idling, then recheck the timing with either a dial back timing light or with the balancer marked with timing tape. I'll bet you're going to find that the timing is off by 20-50 degrees ACCORDING TO THE BALANCER. This process takes me about 10-15 minutes and quickly identifies one or more of the following : a balancer that has 'slipped', an incorrect timing tab location, or a severely worn timing set.

Here in the states it is quite easy to check the current balancer with a new one to compare the marks as most every parts store will have a new Chevy balancer. If the timing tab is the issue, then an aftermarket timing tab is in order, and if the timing set is suspect, then some more tear apart is required.

Again, I'm sure someone will comment on that you should ignore me and 'just do it right', but when you have limited access to all of the tools and want confirm that the issue is not ignition or fuel system related this will nail it down in a hurry.

X2 on the advice to get a new rotor - that thing is in poor condition. It's a good time for a new cap as well.

Good luck - Jim

p.s. - where are you located?

 

x2 on a oldscool V8 Chevy
it does not really matter where the rotor is pointing,
as long as its pointing at #1 plug wire when its supposed to..
that is when the #1 cylinder is at verified TDC on the compression stroke..