Resuscitated the Grab Bag yesterday. As always, I'm not sure what exactly it was that fixed it.
Step 1: New Battery
Step 2: Pulled the distributor (clean contacts on cap/rotor with abrasive emery board)
Step 3: Removed exhaust side spark plug #1
Step 4: turned the crank by hand until the piston appeared to be at its highest point of travel - good advice somebody gave in another thread - thanks
Step 5: Buttoned everything back up and it just spun without trying to fire
Step 6: STARTING FLUID STARTING FLUID STARTING FLUID - my dad thought it would help, I didn't think it would hurt... got a little crazy with it. POP. Backfire that blew my air filter clean off and across the garage. lol stuff
Step 7: Pull distributor and reset to TDC at the crank pulley marks (noticed the cam gear can be 180 degrees off (is this what you meant a while back Sideways?) while the crank pulley is dead nuts TDC at the tang - do another rotation by hand at the crank and it lines up right)
Step 8: Re-stab dizzy and fiddle futz with its rotational adjustment - bob's your uncle.
Weird thing now is that the distributor wants to rest at its most clockwise position, whereas before it ran best at its most counterclockwise adjustment position. Weird. Either way, let it warm up and adjusted idle - put ten miles on it test driving up to 60 mph and it didn't stall out, drop idle at lights, or do its weird unhappy backfire at 3k rpm in 3rd as it did before. I can tell not all the same power was there as before, so the timing obviously isn't perfect as I was making adjustments by ear, but shit, it runs again. May try to fine tune the timing with a light today and clean out the interior if it ever gets above freezing.
Unexpected progress. I only intended to file taxes and do laundry yesterday.