My "Issue"

[2240sx's]

Ok. I had the timing chain rattle issue not too long ago, with the climax being that the car was making this horrid, rattle as if the chain was rapidly slapping against the guide. So I took the value cover, upper chain guard and distributor out and off to fix the jammed tensioner. Did that and now I can't get the coupe to crank. I figured the distributor timing was off, set everything TDC, aligned the dot on the shaft to the notch and still no go. What can I be doing wrong? Everybody else with this issue seems to figure it out eventually EXCEPT for me. This is my daily so it's killing me hard, very hard. Getting spark, compression and fuel. Oh, it's a DE.

[2240sx's]

ttt Hope someone deems me worty of help...

[Bone]

Keep messing with the timing. If that is all you messed with other than the guides that is your problem. Keep going over it till you figure it out. Start all over as if you are timing it from scratch ;)

[Id-]

get cyl 1 at tdc by removing valve cover and looking at cam lobes, move rotor on distributor (minus cap) to line up with the place where the cylinder 1 terminal is (if the cap were on)... if you've got it in the general area it will crank (make sure you put back on the valvecover, etc)
make sure timing is set at correct marks using a timing light... if you cant quite get it there; you're off by one tooth
use logic to find out which direction the rotor needs to be turned and remove the cap off the distributor, pull distributor out just a little, move rotor around just a bit to where rotor sits up or down one tooth and then put it back together and crank it up... should run much better and be able to set timing just right...

being off just one tooth makes a helluva difference, being off by two or more and it wont crank, period.

seriously though, it was a pretty dumb move by not remembering where the rotor was positioned when you pulled the distributor, this is basic automechanics