78 242 timing issue can't figure out
 

The car started on a very cold day and ran for about 30 seconds than back fired and died. It would not start and when I turned it over it would backfire every once in a while. I took off the intake tube and it had a lot of gas in it, and my guess it is from the cold weather injector. It has spark and fuel. I checked the timing on the belt and crank and lined it up. Both look good, but the distributer is not pointing to #1 at TDC. From what I can tell from the book they should all line up.

I have never seen the gear on the distributer, but is it possible for the gear to slip on the shaft?

Should I pull the distributer out and try and set the timing that way? Any help would be great as it has gotten real old standing in freezing temps for multiple hours trying to get the thing to run.

I had to re-align the distributor on an old Subaru I had for the exact issue you are describing... but thats because I put it in wrong. I have never had one slip though. Was the clamp bolt tight on the distributor? On an old Celica I had, I did the timing and forgot to tighten the clamp bold all the way. Drove for a couple of days before it back fired and spun the distributor on me. Thats where I would look first. Just make sure you have TDC before you go moving the distributor around.

- Goat

I would take a close look at your timing belt.

+1 on checkng the timing belt, Silly question does the cam gear and distributor both rotate when you turn the crankshaft ?