This is my first time working on a Chevy I've worked on Toyotas my whole life and found myself in a similar but different ball game. The Chevy I'm currently working on is a Springfield 350 c10. I had problems cranking the engine over and checked to see that I have no spark with a new coil and all new spark plugs. Everything in the distributor is brand new as well, the only thing is that I didnt install them myself and looked to see that they weren't set at all not a single gap between the points except for on the lobe of the cam. I'm having trouble removing this part I haven't yanked on it yet because I'm afraid to break anything. any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

you have to pull the distributor to pull those parts and take the pin out of the cam shaft, then pull the shaft up out of the distributor housing. i would verify you have 12v while cranking this would come from the "I" terminal on the starter solenoid

 

since youre at it you might want to replace the old points system with an HEI

 

That's the mechanical advance spring the rotor sets on top of. If you can roll it back and it spring returns back it's ok. One thing to check is the rotor turning when you crank the engine? Roll the distributor over till the cam lobe is on the point arm opening. I'd suggest set the gap around .015" get you in the ball park. I still have a point distributor in my Olds with the uniset points as you have

 

I've got the engine cranking the cam shaft and have the opening of the points on the cam lobe, the only problem I'm having is getting to the gap of the points with my feeler gauge. I was jus wondering if I could remove the mechanical advance spring without ripping the distributor out like irish_alley said at that point I might as well switch over to HEI from points

 

Use an allen wrench. Those are called a "uni-set" points that and condenser are one unit. If you can't get a feeler gauge in there, use a match book cover then when you get it running, set the point dwell with a dwell meter.

 

Matchbook worked great! was able to fit it under the AMS to adjust the gap between the points. engine started right up!!!