Recently purchased a 60 Bird with 430. I was tuning it up with fresh plugs and points as it had been sitting awhile. When I went to set the timing I noticed that it was set at 3 degrees. I attempted to set it to 6 degrees and the distributor was butting up against the fuel pump and would turn no more. Is the distributor out one tooth on the drive gear. The vehicle runs and starts fine at this setting. The manual says timing range is 3 degrees to 6 degrees. Should I pull the distributor and rotate it counterclock wise one tooth or should I leave it alone-afraid I'll screw someting up on distributor if I start screwing with it.

It sounds as if the distributor was installed one tooth off or possibly the timing chain is severly stretched. Bring the #1 CYL to TDC with wrench (turning engine clockwise). Reverse rotation of engine (wrench on balancer bolt) and see how many degrees the balancer will turn before dist. rotor begins to move. This (amount of movement noted on balancer timing graduations) will give you an indication of how stretched the chain is.

If OK (or corrected) I would then reposition the dist. to be able to make full timing adjustments.

Thanks, I think its the distributor is out one tooth and not the timig chain as the motor was rebuilt-I saw the paperwork. I will need to turn itone tooth counterclock wise to get full timing movement.