Here's what I think is happening:
I think you are have the damper set to your timing mark but you are NOT on the compression stroke. So then when you line up your distributor, it is actually 180 degrees off. You can confirm you are coming up on the compression stroke by removing #1 plug and put your finger over the plug hole. When you crank it around by hand on the balancer, you will feel it pressurize and it will push your finger off the plug hole. That's where you need to be when you line up the dizzy to the #1 plug.
