I f*in hate this car.

I don't think the rotor is on the dist shaft correctly. Pull it off again, and look inside. You'll see the tang that has to fall into the notch in the dist shaft. Line them up by eye, then, as you push down (sometimes quite a bit) twist the rotor until it drops down all the way. Once you've proven the rotor is on correctly and fully seated on the dist shaft, reinstall the cap.
I dunno what points you're unsticking if it's an electronic ignition.

Hope this helps.
Try to remain calm.

George

Yeah I'm thinking about smoking (not cigarettes) before I take a look at my car tomorrow. I can't deal with the anxiety of knowing I don't have a dime to fix this damned thing and I need it on the road. I'm thinking the rotor probably isn't all the way in there.

sounds to me like a guy extremely frustrated and I know we have all been there at some time in our life. Be it a car problem, house ,or even personal problem. sometimes we have to vent and the last thing we would need is some one aggravating the situation. Guess this would be the time to help,kinda thought this site was all about. JMO

Moe

You hit the nail on the head. I'm at my breaking point with my life and things will get easier when I get full time status at my job in 2 weeks, but I get paid bi-weekly and I won't have extra money for a month. I'm struggling mightily right now and having my car do this to me right now is the last thing I need. At least I have this Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday off so I can at least try to figure out wtf is wrong with it.

well, i only respoded to your own words. you said even changing the oil has caused you hassle...?
if you are complaining about how hard it was to change the oil, then maybe this is not the car for you. that is all i am saying.
then you are complaing about it being built so long ago!. you knew that before you bought it!
HERE IS MY POINT. ON ONE HAND, YOU ARE GRIPING ABOUT GETTING THE DIST. CAP BACK ON, AND ON ANOTHER HAND YOU SAY HOW BROKE YOU ARE, AND THEN ONCE AGAIN, YOU SAY HOW YOU ARE TRYING TO SCRAPE UP THE MONEY TO BUY EFI FOR THE CAR!,. ARE YOU NUTS? WHAT DO YOU NEED EFI ON A CAR THAT WAS MADE WHEN JIMMY CARTER WAS PRESIDENT...................... SEE MY POINT?

Because I'm extremely sentimental about the car. I had my wedding pictures taken in, on and around the car. I meant to say HEI, not EFI.

The carb has fowled your plugs or your coil is in need of replacing maybe
If my old car stopped running I bet I can figure out what is wrong and fix it myself..
Now if I had a Volvo that just quit running I would be looking at spending a months pay just to have it diagnosed and replace a part or parts to make it run again.. JMO

when it ran did it run good ?
if not what was it doing ?

See I lived, eat, breathed, crapped, sweat and bled Volvo 240s for years. I know what's wrong with those cars before anyone does. But yes some of the parts (Like the air mass meter.) are very expensive.

I honestly have no idea if my car is HEI or not. When I took the dist. cap and rotor off, I noticed there was a phillips head screw holding something metal in. I was too petrified to go any deeper to see if my car has points for pure fear of really screwing something up.

I would say the car hasn't run reliably since June. Since then it's been doing this random crank and no start B.S. and has been progressively getting worse and worse. Sometimes the car will run great for 3 weeks and then after it sits for a day or two it won't run. I had posted this previously a month or so ago and when I was checking resistance on my ignition coil, I heard this *tick* and I instinctively knew to start the car up and *pouf* it started right up. Members on here told me that it sounds like my points are sticking which lead me to believe that I have points on my car.