s10 with 76 seirra classic 350 motor no spark

im pretty far into this swap, just a lil bit of history started with a 2.2 pulled and dumped that, bought a 1976 sierra classic pick up with a 350 turbo 400 3 speed. motor ran good and strong, dropped it in the s10 with little mods sat nicely in its new home. so i got it all in and fired. i bought some aftermarket parts edelbrock performer intake, edelbrock 600 cfm barb, and a set of hedman headers, so i took it all down and put it back together when i pulled the cap and rotor from the engine i marked on the fire wall the position of the rotor in the firing sequence and also marked on the bottom and cap as well. when i reasembled it i couldnt line the rotor and firewall together it would just fall into place but about a quarter turn from the original mark on the wall. i could however line up the 2 other marks on the rotor n bottom plate. im thinking that this has been the cause of my problem. when i turn the truck over now it won"t fire, no spark, i noticed while the motor was turning over sparks coming from the alternator as it made a complete turn, the sparks did stop after a few tries and was replaced with a lil smoke.

i have alot of experience with automotive systems but more with newer vehicles, i dont have much experience with the older equipment but im learning quickly this is my first "hot rod". any help would be gratly appreciated!

if you have sparks coming from your alternator there is a great chance your wiring is not right or there is a short. as for the no spark, if the timing is off by that much you arent going to get anything. but to make sure check your coil for spark and every plug wire. it is very possible you might have burnt up the coil.

Yeah, you fried the altenator it sounds like. RFeplace it, ut before doing so, you have to figure out what short caused that to happen. As far as the timing goes, your best bet is to bring the #1 cylinder to TDC on the ignition stroke. Look at the rotor and turn the distributor to line up the #1 plug wire in line with the rotor. Once you get everything all situated and wired properly try firing it up. AS SOON as you get it running, get a timing light on it and get the timing set up correctly. (usually 6 degrees BTDC) I learned the hard way a while back what serious damage to your valves massively retarded ignition timing can do.

Usually the reason the distributor wont drop in is the oil pump which is below the gear.
You have to fiddle with it until it catches and drops.
The pump can be rotated with a screwdriver.
The gear catches first and rotates a bit then the oil pump drive drops in when it lines up.
Bob B