Distributor whoas

So i bought one of those Weisco HEI distributors for 80$ or what ever it was a year ago. Its ran on my car now for a year or so.

First off, its garbage. The cap they provide with it barely holds tight as the centering knotch is high clearance. Also, the clips dont do much to keep it down.

Also, the cap apparently must be purchased from them when its time to replace. I spent an hour at Advance Auto trying to match a cap. None worked, I thought a normal 318 cap or something from the magnum series. Nothing, its either too small, too wide, or too tall.

I turned the distributor in a lathe to narrow the Diameter and shorten height from hip to rotor tip.

All this leads up to my question. When I turn my engine over, it turns and turns and turns and usually nothing. I can get it to start, but its usually when right when i start to turn the key back. I have a buddy friggin with the distributor to help hit the sweet spot to start.

Yes, i wired it with Cylinder 1 at TDC. It will and has run. It just starts very very rough. When it runs, it runs a little high, but still strong.

The car has no exhaust currently and I am wondering if lack of back pressure has anything to do with it?

My other concern is that the posts do not line up to the magnetic trigger wheel inside the distributor the same as it did with the other cap.

I took care in trying to do so, but not sure if i messed up. My thoughts are that the engine does run, so i am not sure if that would effect start up.

Any ideas, as always, are greatly appreciated!

You have two power circuits from the ignition. One for start and one for run. Are you sure you are getting power to the igtnition in start mode?

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When I turn my engine over, it turns and turns and turns and usually nothing. The car has no exhaust currently and I am wondering if lack of back pressure has anything to do with it?

My other concern is that the posts do not line up to the magnetic trigger wheel inside the distributor the same as it did with the other cap.

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Back pressure is not affecting this. I'd start from scratch & put the timing marks on 10 BTDC on #1 compression then w the vac can roughly where you want it, turn the housing slightly until the reluctor blade that is closest to the magnet is now dead even w it. Now see if the rotor tip is close to the underside of the cap terminal w the #1 wire (rotor phasing). Vac adv (if used) will shift the rotor phasing CCW (on a SB) from that position. For standardization it's best (but not required) to have the #1 plug wire/terminal forward and slightly to the pass side. Good luck & holler back.