timing should always be set to the stock point for a start. 10 degrees is good. you must jumper those 2 pins as was said earlier.
the distributor is held in place with a pressure type clamp at the base. if you look down to where the shaft goes thru the manifold, you will see a c shaped clamp (sorta) with a single bolt thru it. that will loosen the distributor. but you should know about that since you pulled the distributor out!
Now for some things to make your life a little easier, since it isn't firing at all:
the damper on the crankshaft in stock form has 3 lines in it. you use the one with the widest notch. after determining the right one, fill the line with some whiteout or just fill it with chalk and wipe the outer edge off so it is a nice white line, makes it much easier to see.
Next try to get it close statically. pretty easy wiht a helper.... pull the coil wire off. pull the #1 cylinder sparkplug.
put finger over/in hole have assistant just crank the motor in little clicks. when you feel the pressure building up, watch for the marked line on the damper, and get it to the big notch all the way to the right (looking at it from the front)(it's actually almost behind the edge of the water pump pulley) on the timing plate just above the dampener. . that is 0 degrees, tdc for cylinder1. it may take a few tries to get your procedure right, but it's not hard. if you over shoot a little, you can usually stop, wait a minute, and turn the crank back with a wrench, or even by hand a touch. depends on your reach, and hand strength there.
Ok back on, that is 0 degrees, tdc for cylinder1.
install the distibutor, start with the rotor on it pointing about where the #1 plug wire would be if the cap was on. the shaft will rotate as it goes down and mates with the drivegear, I can;t remember which way tho...
be sure the distributor flange is flush with the manifold, if it is not, then you likely are not lined up with the oilpump drive shaft. turn the pump shaft slighly one way and retry. it's a hex shaft (use a 10mm socket on an extension to reach down and turn it),so it doesn;t take much... sometimes you do have to give it a little push to get it all the way down.
If you do that static setup, it should start up and run (remember to put the #1 sparkplug back in!!!!) and you can hit it with the light and fine tune it by rotating the dist which you left loose after reinstalling.
Tighten the clamp down when done.
Hope that does it for ya!
[This message has been edited by tjm4fun (edited 02-27-2006).]