My buddy and I were trying to put it on in school today. Heres a tip, remember to mark how everthing is setup :D . Two periods + an hour and a half after school,( we had to find top dead center and all that) we got it running. I had absolutley no idea how to set it up however. I had to limp it home, with the idle at 0, as well as with little power. My teacher told me not to hot-rod it :shifty . Anyway how does one going about setting up this distributor so it runs decently. What are the steps? Any help would be great.

I advance it (towards the firewall) then drive. If it makes noises or pings or seems like it lost power, I back it off. Drive again and repeat. You ARE talking about setting the timing right?

When you crank the engine while starting, if the engine "jams" or something quickly stops the cranking, the timing is too far advanced. This is the spark pushing the piston down while the piston is coming up.

Advancing the timing will increase the idle speed. At some point it will probaly do the opposite, but it will increase within reason.

Too far retarted will cause the engine to run-on or diesel after the ignition is killed, and overheating. Its different with every car. These are just guidelines.

Im going to have to buy a new pertronix thing aren't I? Also, is it a bad thing we couldn't get the compression test to work? :nono I think I had to find out some sort of interval or something to? I believe it was a measurement. Sorry I can't be more specific.

You did'nt use the old points did you? So, Did you figure out the timing marks- either the ball on the flywheel (looking thru the hole at the top of the transmission bellhousing or the one on the front crank pully). Pull the valve cover and make sure its on the compression stroke. Re-install the distributor with the rotor pointing toward the notch on the distributor body(visible with the cap off). There's your starting point. Make the adjustments as described above. Listen for detonation under load. Use the force.

Cris