235 starting help?

[53farm]

I've got a '53 3600 with an early 50's 235 in it. It cranks every time, but won't start. It started and ran when I bought it, ran enough to drive it onto the trailer, and ran enough for me to drive it 40-50 yards from the trailer into the driveway...and now won't run. Had truck a couple months. Battery is brand new as of today. Removed the clear fuel filter before the carb and replaced with a piece of tubing to rule out a clog in the filter. There was fuel in filter prior to removing, and its getting fuel through that tube over to carb. Carb is rebuilt according to previous owner. My father helped verify spark. He stuck a screwdriver in #1 plug wire and said he could see it sparking.

It started and ran with the screwdriver stuck in the #1 plug wire end. However, with #1 plug wire plugged back onto spark plug, it just cranks and won't start like its been doing since I got it into the driveway. Trying to verify timing but I can't see the bead/BB on flywheel through the peephole, but I can see the needle. There is also a threaded hole that I can see at one point on the flywheel. Is this where the BB was attached? Or anything in relation to the BB? Gotta be something distributor related, no? What am I screwing up??? Any help is appreciated. Thanks.