Well after three years I finally attempted to fire up the bird for the first time. It wasn’t a total disaster, but it didn’t start. Let me tell you what I did:

- Primed the oil pump.
- Set the timing mark on the flywheel to zero.
- Took off the distributor cap and tried to align it to the #1 cylinder, but it would only point to #7 or #2. So I left it at #7.
- Checked to make sure I had power to the distributor (GM HEI).

I verified that there was power at the pink HEI (GM) wire, but the timing light indicated that there was no spark (no flash) at the plug wire. Is that good way to verify spark? Any other suggestions? The only wire going to the HEI is the pink ignition wire. Does it need a ground or any other connection? This morning I read that sometimes the oil pump drive shaft can spin and may need to be “adjusted” with a screwdriver to get the distributor to point to the #1 cylinder. Do I have to worry about damaging anything if I manually spin it about 45 degrees?

Sorry about the basic questions but it is all new to me. I’m going to give it another shot this weekend if it isn’t raining. Thanks for any input, Ryan