After getting a fresh 340 in my Duster, I got everything hooked back up,, the motor is oil primed..so I had to deal with the drive gear and getting a rough timing on it.

I was curious though, if you're say, 180 out on the distributor..will the plug still fire? I pulled a plug with the wire on it and gave it a spin and saw/heard nothing at the plug.

The distributor is a new Mopar piece but a few months back with the other motor, the pick up went out...or so I thought it was. I put a known good one in there and gaped it with a brass gauge. Any ideas?

It'll still fire with it being 180 out. What typically happens is it will backfire through the carb.

To start diagnosing, I'd pull the coil wire of the dizzy and set it close to ground. Next, disconnect the mag pickup line and tap the exposed pin on the plug to ground a couple of times. If the ECU is functioning correctly it'll trigger each time that pin goes to ground.

If it works, it's probably the mag pickup. If it doesn't, I would check the wiring, check the ground to the ECU, check the ballast resistor, check the inner and outer windings on the coil with an ohm meter, and then finally replace the box with a known good one in that order.

You took the dist out & spun it by hand & no spark(s)? Take off the starter relay yellow "sol" wire of it's terminal to disable the starter. (1)See if the coil positive pri terminal has fire in ign1 (run) and (2) ign2 (start) & if good that tells you you are good from the ign sw out to the coil. (3) Take off any/all wires from the coil neg pri terminal & jump from the terminal (not the wire you remove from the male terminal) to ground repeatedly like Morse Code & see if that makes the coil sec wire (dist end) held 1/4" from a good/safe ground produce sparks in (4) run (ign1) and (5) start (ign2) & if good this tells you the coil (at least w cold) is OK & the ballast has continuity (in ign1). (6) What Mark said, touch the male end of the dist harness body half repeatedly to ground & see if it then kicks out a coil spark in (7) start and (8) run and check that the ECU is grounded. Dizzy is prob OK since you subbed one in. Final timing setup want marks at 10-15 (dep on cyl psi, 10-stock, 15 wild cam) w .006-8" at the tightest (closest) tooth w the magnet dead even w that tooth/rotor at or near #1 plug cap terminal (#6 if dot to dot, 12 & 6 o'clock) and vac adv will shift the rotor position when firing (phasing) CCW and vac adv will ch the gap so if you have a Mityvac find the tightest point

I pulled the iggy wire off the distributor and I'm getting strong orange spark from it. Now the plug from the dist. if I pull it and put it to ground when i crank it should spark as well? What am I looking for on that?

Tell me again which tests you did

Well i pulled the coil wire off the Distributor, I checked it for spark when i cranked, it flashed pretty strong, I was just wanting to know about the part where I pull the pigtail on the pick up, and what exactly to do with that in order to test?

If the dist secondary coil wire (dist end) held 1/4" from ground sparks w the key is turned to "start" you're in real good shape. What Mark said the dist is only out of time. Turn the crank till the timing marks are at 10BTDC #1 compression/turn dist housing till the magnet is dead even w the nearest tooth with the rotor under or near under the #1 cap terminal and the vac adv housing has room to be turned either way. moderately snug the dist clamp/hookup the light. Pull the dr valve cover & see that #1 cyl rocker arms are free to make sure your marks are on #1 compression rather than #6. Forgot some details but if you are dot to dot (6/12 o'clock) on a breakin you'd want the rotor under #6 plug wire (and #6 rocker arms on the pass side are loose)