Timing is off

Posted by vapackard On 2015/8/1 11:30:29

Problem:'41 120 runs roughly. Timing is off by light: at max counterclockwise rotation of distributor, #1 fires about 7-10 degrees after TDC; clockwise rotation will stop the engine. I tried moving the wires in the distributor cap ahead, and behind by one hole with no benefit.
Background: car ran and timed well for almost 2 K miles after engine rebuild with new timing chain. Then things got progressively worse. I had recent problems with starting, resolved by cleaning all electrical connections. I have reviewed the related portion of the thread" HA's 52 200 Grey Ghost" (Project Blogs) from a year ago.
Questions: 1. any simple solutions or checks to be made or what have I missed? 2. Should I be looking at the oil pump position? 3. While I have a hard time accepting that the timing chain "jumped" is there any way to check this? 4. Does the front clip need to be removed to access the timing chain? 5. Why/ how could a mispositioned anything happen when it ran so well for a while?