The truck was taken down a year ago to do a full on resto. It did run before. I did not pull the existing wiring harness out of either the engine bay or dash area. That would have been above my pay grade for this resto. So I just went through the wiring checked connections, wire condition, and verified resistance to ensure that it was as solid as it could be.
Now to answer some of these responses. The crank shaft sensor is actually in the distributor in these early computer models using an eye system that monitored the cranks position by the rotation of the distributor. So yes I thought to maybe I was a 180 degrees out so we checked that too. Even with it turned around still no spark. The codes that I managed to pull were miscellaneous codes in regards to the catalytic converter, and some other stuff that would not keep it from starting. I could be off though seeing how I was doing the engine light counting technique to figure out what the codes were. Hard to find someone with an OBD 1 reader these days. Even the dealership doesn't want to mess with it. As far as the gauge cluster goes I'm not going to say it's nuts or anything but it was untouched during the disassembly and worked fine before the truck was taken down. So I'm not sure that would be the issue. A lot of what I have read points to some faulty wiring which affects the ASD (auto shutdown) relay. Poor splicing from the factory, and too much tied into the splices going to this relay. Not sure how to tackle that other than to rebuild the harness, which would suck but if it comes to it than so be it. I have gone through every ground and cleaned, greased, and verified ground contacts.
I'm going to tow it down to another buddy's shop today who came up with an OBD 1 scanner and can reflash the computer if it needs it. He can see how frustrated I am that I have a freshly rebuilt truck and can't even get the damn thing started. Oh and yes I verified the ignition and neutral safety switches. Like I said it will turn over in Park and Neutral, but doesn't send spark to the plugs. I almost threw my timing light away thinking it was bad at first till I realized there just wasn't any signal from the distributor to make the light work. Well thanks again for all the input, and keep em coming to maybe give me some direction I haven't looked at yet.