68 slant6??

I have a 68 valiant that I bought non-running. The engine has a pertronics ignition and a slight cam. When trying to start it takes about 10 seconds before the engine sounds like it wants to start, but at that time the starter gets very hot. So my question is could it be the timing is off, the dist was put in the wrong way. I will check the timing which I am told can be done while trying to crank it over. I also will check to see if I am getting spark, Any suggestions ?:oops: