Is there an external resister on your your Coil? If so, make sure the red Wire is connected to the battery side of the resistor, and not the coil side.
If in doubt about the resistor, run a wire from the ignition switch to the red wire on the Petronix.
Also, make sure you have the proper gap between the petronix and the magnetic wheel, if its to large, it will affect your dwell.

When doing the static timing, I set the crank ot 12btc, then rotate the distributor back and forth.
I can hear a small "Click" when it fires.
If its to loud to hear the click I hook and inductive timing light to #1 and look for the flash.

Hope this helps,
Dave.