84 Chevy C/10 Running Rough Distributor Bad Timing?

[gconn77]

Hello everyone. I am not very advanced with working on engines. However, I do have a general ability to do average repairs, adjustments, etc.

I think my distributor is bad, or the timing might be off? I am not sure but the engine runs very rough. I created a video and uploaded it to youtube.com. In the video you will be able to hear the motor running as well as hear what happens when I turn the distributor a little bit. Which brings me to another question: Should you be able to turn the distributor by hand? Eitherway, turning the distributor doesn't really help much at all... in an idle I get get the motor to run better, however, giving it some gas and I have the same problem. If it helps any, before I ran into this problem... for some time now, after running the truck for periods of about 30 minutes or longer, after turning the truck off, it has been near impossible to re-start it. At first I thought it was the starter getting too hot from the engine.. I replaced that and added a heat shield. This did not solve the problem. That is when a friend told me that the timing might be off... something about a vacuum thing in the distributor. Now today, I can't run it on the road at all. Any help would be very much appreciated. Please click the small image below to view the video.



Thanks,
Garry