So you were 180° off? Welcome to the club! If you are not off 180° once in a while you are not working on a car with a distributor. Yes, the distributor can seem to be in the 'right' spot because the TDC event occurs twice while the camshaft is rotating only once. The timing chain big/small gears slow the camshaft to 1/2 crankshaft speed. That is also why when you align the cam gear timing dimples up, if you are not indexed correctly you throw the distributor off 180°. You are learning, grasshopper. The vacuum lines I would plug them all for now until you track down where they all belong. Vacuum leaks will screw up everything. Just leave the vacuum break hooked up. That is the very short one that comes out of the carb and goes right to the vacuum pot on the pass side of the carb. You need that to crack the choke open once the engine starts. Just get the timing set and then I can walk you through a tune-up. Remember to set the base timing at the slowest idle you can maintain, with no vacuum advance hooked up. That is why I like pulling the plugs. No chance of centrifugal or vacuum advance interfering. Do you have a vacuum gauge? If not get one. It is indispensable. A tachometer is needed too.