ol_red,
It is indeed a bad idea to have the ignition powered all the time. This will lead to a cooked coil and maybe cooked points. Are you sure you have the key switch ON when you are looking for power at the coil? The key switch has a nontraditional position for ON.
You might be able to rotate the distributor enough to make up for being off one cap hole, but not two. If you want to be sure of where you are, pull plug #1 and bump the engine over until you feel a blast of air rush by a thumb held over the hole.
If you look above the starter, there is access hole in the bellhousing with a little pointer attached. This is where you time the engine. After you feel the air blast by your finger, you need to slowly pull the engine over in the direction of rotation, looking for a BB that is embedded in the flywheel.
This BB can then be aligned with the little pointer. This will indicate TDC on #1. Now you can pull the distributor cap, note the location of the rotor and stick #1 wire in the tower over the tip of the rotor.
If this is all to technical, you can fiddle until you get the engine to pop, then adjust the distributor manually. Moving #1 a spot in the cap can get results too..one method gives you instant results while the other can get the job done, just slower.
Stuart
