Ha, ha!!! success...
We got Chuck's Valiant running good today!
We got it through the break-in for the cam yesterday, then shut it down to let some of the smoke clear out of the garage, then when we tried to restart it, no spark....
So we checked the reluctor gap in the distributor today and we could get a .030" feeler gauge almost halfway down, but then it would hang up. We set it to .008" with a brass feeler gauge and started it up. Then reset the timing to 36° total advance and then set the idle mixture screws. Now it starts right up warm without even hitting the gas pedal...
Of course I forgot to bring the camera today to get an "after" video...