we've got a tach on another car that works with msd 6al and can pull it to use. perhaps we've got faulty timing numbers and a 'faulty rpm idle' due to a bad tach or something going on with it. we'd thought maybe there was something going on with the tach yesterday because after pulling the distr and putting in a different bushing, the timing numbers made no sense with the timing light vs what we should have had on paper using what we used. its very strange that on our previous setup with distr., the car 'idled' at 1000 rpm. we take distr., out put a different bushing in, and right off the bat the idle was way off, despite us using the same base time. so we put the old set up back in and same thing.

Jerry, these may be some rookie questions but here goes just to confirm:
1. are you saying we just tie the two dog ears shut (or remove) so as to eliminate any mechanical getting mixed in with initial in order to set base?

2. if so, are you saying with the ears still tied shut, we bring it up to the desired rpm curve (2700?) and measure what those degrees were from base to get us there? Then with that info we choose what springs and bushing on paper that will get us close to that?

3. when we do yank the distr like before, we yanked it at about 5-8 degrees BTDC. is that ok or should it be on TDC exact when we remove?

Thank you Jerry,
2.