Good idea, but I had considered that. You see when the car went all wonky last week, I found that #4 had no spark at all. When I began to trace that problem, the car would suddenly not start at all. I began to suspect a distributor/points/condenser problem and since I had no spare condensors (and coudl find none at the local parts stores) I figured it was finally time to upgrade to an electronic ignition unit.

Well, while doing that, I noticed that the distributor gear was not lined up properly. Since I had not kept careful notes on the original plug wire configuration and since it would not start when I put the plug wires back on (with the original points distributor) in 1-3-4-2 configuration, I thought that the original owner had put the gear in incorrectly and had swapped the wires as necessary.

So, I swapped the gear 180 degrees. (Which made no difference) After I completed switching out the ignition for the electronic unit, I gave it another go. Lots of pops and puffs and the occasional loud backfire, Today, while braving the freezing rain, I rechecked the gear and realized that it was 180 off of its spec setup. So, I swapped it again and put it back to the way it was. It now cranks smoothly without puffing and popping, but still no ignition at all.

So, I've tried it two different ways and had no real success.

There have got to be several issues here... I just can't get them all narrowed down.