I know this is an old thread but it has a lot of tribal knowledge built up in it now. Something i learned this weekend. If you have set the crank, camshaft and flywheel to all the timing markings correctly and you fire up your motor and it sounds like a popcorn machine, don't panic. I recently just had to replace my camshaft seal and went through this. Turns out I didn't tighten down the timing belt tension pulley. Of course I had by then pulled all the covers again and the main pulley before I figured it out. Once I rotated the belt and then tighten down the pulley all was fine.
I would like to say, I appreciate all the knowledge that has been shared on this thread. It is the closest thread I could find to help with my problem. The OG post is very similar to my issue except I have not messed with the timing belt. This is what I'm dealing with: Had a leak at the distributor seal and possibly valve gasket. Removed distributor without unplugging anything or removing the cap and replaced the seal. Replaced the valve head seal along with the seals around the plug wires then reassembled everything. Truck started right up but idled hard. Drove it down the street and it sounded much different, almost like it was bogging down slightly, and seemed to be down on power. When I figured out timing is probably off, I took the distributor back off and cranked the camshaft gear to line up with the marks for TDC. I aligned the distributor rotor to fire on cylinder #1 at TDC according to a write up from Japan had instructed. The engine cranks, but won't start. I tried adjusting the distributor rotor a couple times while putting the engine at TDC each time. Nothing has worked. I can't figure out how things got so out of wack. Truck ran perfectly before doing any work to it. I've had it for a month and put 450 miles on it with out issue. It has a new battery, and plugs which are getting a spark from the plug wires. I've search for days online looking for a solution. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Might want to check to make sure you lined up the crank to TDC. Its easy to do it 180 deg out. I suspect the when you restabbed the dizzy you were maybe off by a tooth, which can easily happen.
Thanks for the response. Once I lined the distributor up I rechecked the crank and it was still at TDC. I even check the flywheel and it is on T. I forgot to add that the truck would stall when left to idle as well. Maybe the rotor is not lined up correctly? It’s set to the 1st cylinder