There are some vacume lines that should be replaced. The weights/springs seem to be in order. The timing has always been something that I have seen as an issue. It acts as if it's late with a lot of fast cranking. But if the accelerator pump is staving the engine, it would net similar results.

We have played with the timing since day one, and the initial setting is about at its max, with the hot start issue coming into play. (It has been varied in the 6 to 14 range, with it @ about 12.) The problem with the timing is that the engine acts as if it would like more timing, but @ 14, it wont crank.

If you back the timing a hair below 12, it flat out won't start. On my car, it has a farily healty sweep on the dist and still start. On Ash's car, however, it's a narrow band, right around 12'. Again, if the accelerator pump isn't giving it what it needs, that would answer the hard start (crank, crank, crank, not hot sart) issue.

I toss the carb issue into the equasion because if you don't know good from bad, you are at a loss for finding the problem.

I have been considering the distributor too because everthing seems to add up to a spark problem. Steve is on a fairly tight budget too, so I hate to go out and play hit-or miss with his money. The only thing worse than that is playing hit or miss with my money.