I checked that a while ago but ill check it once more just to be 110% positive its where it should be.
I timed it with the vacuum advance off and plugged. Im pretty sure its above the throttle plate but ill double check.
I dont belive it has spun the damper. if i time it by the seat of my pants the best i can get it is so it works great till like 2grand then it pings and pops. but then again if the vacuum advance wasent working and the damper was spun that sounds like how it would act. ill look into it, but im pretty sure when i lined up the timing marks on the chain and put the damper back on it was at tdc.
Im 99.9% sure the chain was installed correctly. I had my dad help me and hes done a few timing chains before, and ive done one prior to this. I just installed it the way the chiltons manual said to for the 73 dart 318. i belive the two dots pointed at eachother. Also the old timing chain had a slight stretch to it, if i had to guess id say there were only 20-30 thosand miles on it. it was loose but not near enough to jump a tooth. now after finishing the car runs exactly the same. so id find it hard to belive that the previous chain was also installed incorrectly and driven on for 20-30 thousand miles.
I plugged the line and set the timing to 5btc because i think i read somewhere on here that thats a better setting than the chilton manuals 0. ive also tried it at 0 before the timing chain was done. its a vacuum advance (brand new line to the dist). Anyway not positive the weights are working right but we did swap the distributer for another we had laying around, and it dident change anything. I find it hard to belive the other one is messed up. but at this point its worth looking at. how should i go about checking the weights?
I wont be able to touch the car till the weekend probaly but keep the ideas coming. You dont know how badly i was to drive this car.