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Thanks everyone. I removed the distributor and found the former owner had painted the area where it sits. Scraped that off and now the reading between distributor terminal and ground with points closed is zero. Bought metal ignition wire and fashioned a new coil wire. When I open the points, a nice spark jumps 1/4" to ground. Spark at the plugs appears brighter as well. When I turn the engine over the voltage between the switch terminal and ground drops to around 5V.

Unfortunately, I still get no sign of life from the engine. One would think with spark and fuel you'd at least get a random firing. I tested all cylinders for compression and the engine-cold reading on all is 82 psi (+/-) 1 . There is plenty of suction at the carb throat. Tried starting fluid in case something is amiss with the carb, but it still failed to fire.

Could the distributor be off by enough to preclude starting or even firing? I previously attached a pointer to the timing chain cover and marked the vibration damper to correspond with a line where it says "Spark" on the flywheel. Used a timing light when turning over engine to set the distributor so the damper mark lines up with the pointer. Rotor is at #1 contact in the distributor cap when cylinder #1 is at the top of its compression stroke.

I have to say the line on the flywheel wasn't as obvious as I thought it would be and it was right in the middle of the word "spark." Picture in the owner's manual shows the line to the side of the word "spark." Maybe my mark is off. If the timing was too far retarded (or too far advanced) would the engine fail to fire entirely?

One thing is if the engine has done a lot of cranking without starting the plugs could be fouled. I ran into that problem when firing the 47 up after a long sit. New plugs but lots of cranking before timing and carb was dialed in resulted in moist plugs. You might pull one or two and just check if there is a film on them. If so use carb cleaner or something to clean and dry the plugs off then try again.

If the spark is way off that could definitely cause problems. Also verify #1 plug is at TDC and the rotor is under or at least close to #1 plug wire. Possible the dist could be off by a wire or two or even 180 out.

You need proper fuel/air mixture, and the proper energy spark to ignite and deliver spark at the approx. right time in the compression cycle.
So yes, if it's, say 180 out, then it won't run at all. Just because #1 is up doesn't mean it's at TDC on compression. Recall, it goes around twice in 4 cycle. Usually, turns of the distributor in both directions until you get some coughing while cranking will confirm. Best to set it/check right first.
Sounds like you're moving in the right direction. A common it won't start issue when working on distributors is to forget to replace the rotor or other simple fault, points/wires loose/incorrect, etc.
Are the spark plug wires new? Even if you get good spark at the right time, if it can't get to the plug gap, you won't have enough energy.

I say check the capacitor (condenser)inside the distributor first. Could be failing distributor points as well.

Jim

I agree with Jim...check the condenser first. Those things have a tendency to put their feet in the air with very little warning! Always carry a spare that is matched to your coil... Ernie

If I read back a few posts you talk about a 1/4" spark.

With the spark wire from the coil near to ground I would expect it to jump more than a 1/4 inch of spark.

Keep in mind the spark has to jump from the rotor tip to the plug port on the distributor cap. They do this to let the spark build up higher voltage at the spark plug.

There should not be visible spark at the points or from the points to ground. The capacitor which is connected directly across the points fails one of two ways; if it starts to short it will act like a resistor and kill the spark. If it drys out it will have no capacitive reactance, and you get spark at the points.

The capacitor is in the circuit to form a tuned circuit with the coil.

Last time I had a capacitor fail a couple of years ago I was backing out of the driveway and as soon as I gave it gas it sputtered to a stop in the street.

I gave it the above tests and went to NAPPA and got one for about 5 bucks.

The biggest pain is getting the little short stupid screw back in, inside the distributor.

54 Packard Cavalier

Jim

Thanks everyone. I bought a single breaker plate from Pacific NW Packard to replace the dual breaker plate. Installed it and the car started right up. I guess the dual points have to be synchronized perfectly or they don't work.