Thanks everyone. When I finally started looking at the basics, sure enough the timing was 180 deg off. Switched around the plug wires and it fires right off. Now I guess I have some work to do on the carbs so it'll stay running without playing with the choke and gas. I also would like to get things turned around so that #1 on the distributor is at the front. I suppose that means driving the pin out of the dist gear and reversing it, right? Well anyway I feel good that I seem to be making some progress.

Buz;

I expect, you don't have one of the critical components required for an Otto engine:

Mixture, compression, spark (...and at the right time would be nice!)...

Good Hunting!

"I got absolutely nothing even with some starter fluid"

you mean you took the air filters off and quirted some starter fluid in each carb? By starter fluid, do you mean gasoline? My car had been sitting almost a year until a couple days ago, and we had to do this (used a big plastic syringe with about 50 mL of gas in it, and squirted that into both carbs a few times while turning the starter) a couple times to get the car to start.

Get it going yet?

If you've tried everything, here are a few more things to consider:

The timing gears may be installed wrong. Did you get that far in your rebuild? It's not as simple as it seems to get those gears just right. You can check the position of the #1 cylinder by setting the timing mark on 0 and pulling the #1 plug. Look through the plug hole to observe the position of the piston. You may be able to slide a thin wood or metal rod through the plug hole to rest on top of the piston. Then slowly turn the engine a little by hand and watch or feel the rod to figure out if the piston tops out just as the engine passes the TDC mark.

Also, you may have a weak spark. Check your plug gaps and wait until after dark to spin the engine with the threads of the plug grounded against the block. Your spark should be a hot blue-white.

If you have a weak spark check out the engine grounding strap. A weak or absent ground can prevent your engine from starting.

Gotta stop here - out of space.

Good luck, Steve

I think I read a few days back that you had some question about adjusting the valves, so here is the way I did mine.
remove the spark plugs and line the timing mark on on TDC. Be sure #1 cyl is on compression stroke and adjust rockers #1,#2,#3, and #5.
Put #4 cyl on TDC and adjust #4,#6,#7,and #8.
They can be adjusted hot or cold, but a little better if the engine is warm.
I could send you the instructions out of the book if you like.

The pops make it sound as if the ignition isn't right.

Turn the motor around until the timing light shows #1 firing. Might be easier to just take the cap off and slowly rotate to motor around until the rotor is pointing at where the #1 spark plug wire would be, and the points open. Verify with the timing marks on the pulley that you are in the general vicinity of TDC. Then look in the valve cover (might have to remove it unless you have one of the later 'front' filler caps) and make sure that both #1 valves are closed. I'd suspect you are 180 degrees off.

There is probably some sort of exact science floating around regarding how to position the distributor drive gear, but I always seem to get it off, and just have to tinker around with it for a while to get it going. There's that picture floating around shoing the slots on the drive gear, supposedly with the engine at TDC, they are at a 45 degree-ish angle. I always strive for that and it rarely seems to work for some reason. In any case it is very hard to position that timing gear where you want it because of the way it rotates as it goes down, compounded by the way you will rarely get it to go all the way down and seat into the oil pump drive at the same time.

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I'm JohnMc, and I approved this message.

Wires going to the right plugs? 1-3-4-2 in counterclockwise order. Timing marks lined up properly?

Rob