On easter weekend I was to pull the car out of the garage so as to access the attic stairway. to put my hospital equipment back up and away. I let the car sit and went about removing two tree stumps on my patio . I did get to the car and I had the fuel bowl sight plugs out for months I REMOVED THE SPARK PLUGS, THEY WERE ALL BLACK. Then I removed the distributor thinking I had maybe only partially sheared the distributor drive pin. I wiped the
oil away and blew the
oil out of the pin center ans saw light coming through the hole. Pin is OK.. that is where I started a mesas. Back then I thought I had installed the drive gear 180° out. I'll tell you now the hole holding the distributor shaft and drive gear is off center and angled downward. The drive gear will only fit on the shaft one way and have the pin hole align all the way through.
When the distributor was reinstalled there was no pop, bang, or backfires. The electric fuel pump was running. There was no pressure showing on indicator gauge. I poured in five gallons of gas in the fuel tank. the pumps were now were a different sound. I was out of Gas. I managed to waist most of the summer again. 20 gallon of gas ,engine runs great.
I still want to hear what your problem turned out to be.