If you're putting in a new distributor, like the nice MSD billet one with no vacuum advance (like mine), then you really need to confirm you get it in right, with TDC matching up, and your pointer being set properly. From what it sounds like, you can not rely 100% that anything was done exactly right. Did you mean you managed to screw the rotor back down backwards? That's hard to do with one side having a square and the other side having a circle, but I guess if you really worked at it you could jam it in backwards.
