Thanks Fred T. I know that my questions seem rather elementary but thought I would ask for expert advice before doing something really stupid.
The carb was rebuilt because it was all stopped up with crud -- so a before and after comparison is not a very good measure of success. Some "helper" had taken the guts out of my fuel filter. It is running better now than in years. Thanks for the hint on timing by vacuum. I'll give it a try sometime and if I figure it out, will pitch the timing light. In the meantime, should the vacuum advance be disconnected when checking the timing. Timing light manual says YES, truck manual doesn't mention that step.
One more question for the stupid category: If the engine is running fine with the distributor 180 degrees out of position, how did I get to this status? Can I loosen the clamp and rotate the distributor body half a turn to put the #1 wire where it belongs?
Sorry to be so longwinded. --Steve
