Fired up!
Finally, got the engine to fire yesterday. Not sure which of the two adjustments made a difference to the MSD box that got it working. I had the battery (in the trunk) grounded with 1/0 cable to the trunk pan with a through bolt. I added another run of 1/0 cable from the underside of the through bolt to the frame rail. I already had grounds from each head to the frame rails, frame rail to firewall, frame to core support, all with 1/0 cable. The second adjustment was leaving the battery on the battery tender overnight to get a full charge.
After these, I had spark...great. I tried starting the engine, it cranked strong a few times, but no start. Tried again, it "puffed" out of the carb. Tried again, it backfired out of the carb...it's 180 out. So, rotated the balancer to 0, pulled the distributor cap and, yep, 180 out. Fixed that, then she fired!
I can only run it for a few seconds because the AC compressor pulley isn't spinning for some reason. I don't have the Vintage Air controls hooked up yet, maybe that's the cause. I'll troubleshoot that next, then set the timing once I can let the engine run.
Thanks for everyone's help with the ignition troubleshooting.
Daniel
PS- I have a short startup video, but can't seem to get the wmv file to attach.
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