[piecesparts]

I still think that your starting problem is the timing. Especially the hard crank over part where your starter won't quite make a full crank. That is an indication that it is way advanced, in my book. Yes that distributor is an HEI and that will simplify things some. Not knowing your mechanical background, excuse me if I tend to get to in depth as to what you need to do. Have you put on a new cap and rotor lately? If not, I would look into doing that. While you are in the distributor lightly oil the weights on the centrifugal advance unit. That is the part of the distributor shaft directly below the rotor. Those weights can get a little rusty and hang up when you are running the motor. Once you have the distributor back together, then pull the vacuum line off of the advance dashpot and put a small bolt in that rubber line, to plug the vacuum leak while your timing the motor. Get a 9/16 wrench and loosen up the distributor hold down bolt at the base of the distributor, DO NOT TURN THE DISTRIBUTOR, YET. Locate the timing marks on this motor (in this case I would look straight down in front of the timing chain cover behind the water pump and see if it is there). Clean the tab off so that you can see the numbers and the pointers, also go underneath the truck and put some white or silver paint in the groove of the harmonic balancer so that it is easy to see when you time the motor. You may have to rotate the motor until it comes into sight. Buy or borrow a timing light and connect it to the #1 spark plug wire and start the motor. Once the motor is running set the light on the tab for the timing marks and see if you can see the timing mark align with something on the tab. There will be a "0" mark and then indications of BTDC and some after the TDC which is the "0" mark. I used to set my timing at 10 or 12 degrees on a motor with an HEI and it worked fine for me. I do things a little different now, but it is complicated and I use a timing light with a built in advance unit. For what you are trying to accomplish, lets get the base timing first. After you set the timing, then tighten the 9/16 bolt and check it again, to make sure it didn't move while you were tigthening the bolt. Then re connect the vacuum line from the carb to the distributo dashpot and look to see if the timing line moves, it should.

The vacuum fitting that you put the cap on is not a serious problem, leave it capped off for now.