Forget the timing light. Trace the no. 1 plug wire to the distributor cap. On the body of the distributor use a silver sharpie and put a verticle line under the center of the cap tower for the no. 1 plug. Now, remove all the plugs and use a remote starter switch to bump the motor a bit at a time, keeping a finger over the spark plug hole for No. 1. When you feel compression, stop. Then look at the pointer on the bellhousing and use the fan belt to rotate the motor until you see the bb that is embedded in the flywheel meet the pointer. That is Tdc. Now, remove the cap. Is the rotor pointed at the sharpie mark? If it is, the motor is correct timed at tdc. If not, loosen the screw on the octane selector plate/distributor hold down. Not the bolt on the selector plate, loosen the screw. Turn the distributor so that the pointer is pointed directly at your mark. Tighten the screw. Put the cap back on, install the plugs. See if it will start.
Also, can you post a photo of the distributor insides as you have them now?
Here is the pic. This is what I ran into doing this procedure. Spining the fan with finger over #1, I noticed
air compression out at 3 different degrees and 1 degree of nothing out of 4. All at quarter intervals.
I hope this kinda make sense .It hard for me to describe. I did the octane selector moving 3 different times.
At times I thought it was TDC. I did everything you described, down to the silver sharpie.
It is hard for me to decipher what "compression" means in this application.
