Ignition issues possibly due to timing, advice please?

[mackenzie242]

I am fairly new to 2002s, I have a '76 that I bought about a month ago and it hasn't run since I bought it so forgive me if I am asking stupid questions. The car died on me when I was driving it home from buying it. I found that the problem was with the distributor points so I replaced the points with pertronix. The car still will not start, however, I at least know I am getting spark because when I try to start it it backfires and flames shoot up from the carb. Could this be due to very bad timing and premature ignition of air/fuel? That's about the only explanation I could think of, any ideas/advice for dealing with this problem would be greatly appreciated!

[1971Ginger]

have you tried rotating your distributor to see if your timing is just too slow? id try that.

when I put in electric ignition in my 71 I put the disty back in 180 degrees off. car wouldn't start till I rotated it around.

goodluck.

[mike472]

You probably did not install the Petronix in the right spot. You have to position it so it is triggering as the rotor hits a terminal in the distributor cap, or close to it. You should make sure it is timed right after you do this. You should be able to turn the distributor a little til you get it to start then time it with a light with the ball appearring in the window of the bellhousing at 1500 rpm