I replaced the chain and sprockets on a 360 in a 96 ram. I thought I did it right. Had the number one piston at tdc, lined up cam sprocket mark with crank ( crank at the top, cam at the bottom) and had the dist pointing to one. Put it all back together and it ran like crap. I looked into it and decided it was fuel synch or dist off. Turned the motor over to get it back to tdc. this time I pulled dist to look inside. Found out it was off. Slot should be almost front to back on oil pump gear and slightly towards ac/ number one intake.

I was told to either turn dist by hand to line it up with number one, or use screwdriver to move gear up and turn it to get it in right spot. I turned it an inch and it was pointing towards one. Now it wont start. Sometimes she will cough a little, but that's all.

So im about to start all over and rip her back apart. What do you guys think.

 

You made it harder than it had to be. I just pulled the old one off and put the new one back on that's fine as long as you do not turn the cam or crank.

I agree that your fuel sink is off. I have never had to deal with that good luck getting it fixed and let is know how it works out.

 

You had number one in firing position, and the cam and crank gears lined up dot to dot? Or did you have to turn one or the other to get them to line up?

 

ok, does the distributor gear come out with the distributor, or is it separate? i don't know. i hope its attached to the distributor. if its separate, have you moved it?

the pic below is crank dot at 12, cam dot at 6, and this is tdc #6, NOT NOT NOT #1. note the positions of the keyways. and the crank can rotate twice to the cam, so that's how it can get 180 out.

if you can get it back close enough to crank, you can google fuel sync and maybe get it close enough to run. i think you can attempt to crank it with the water pump and timing cover off of it. just don't let it run but a moment with no water.