Car won't start...

How many miles on the timing chain ? Put a timing light on it and see when the spark occurs .

If it's not spark and it's not fuel, it's air or timing. First step is to get out the timing light.

If you had a newer car, you could go into the menus and look at a plot of the crankshaft position sensor and the timing diagram without even having to get your hands dirty.

--scott

Is 'a bit of fuel' something like 1/4oz? More than 'a bit' makes its own trouble. Try ether instead.

If not a fuel problem, likely a timing issue. Does your distributor turn easily (clamp bolt not tight)? May have wandered. If it's tight, check position with timing light since you have spark.

Thanks all. I considered timing after I went to bed. Same issue in the morning when cranking. Late this afternoon, I came back to tear into it, but it fired right up, how odd.

I pulled each spark plug afterward, and they weren't bad looking. I sanded them down, checked the gap to about .035. I also took a brass wire brush to the contacts inside of the distributor cap. All in all, it's actually running a bit more smoothly than before. Plugs are wires didn't look too old.

I'll be in for a carburetor rebuild not too long from now. Probably a fuel filter also. It starts to die when you first get into the throttle, unless you feather it. It was sitting in a garage for decades. I guess the last guy did a quick tuneup and got bored.