69 340 problems

George,
Don't worry about the dist. drive gear bushing at all! NOT your problem.

You need to have a good spark. Again, pull the coil wire gently out of the dist. cap for starters. Have someone crank the engine while you hold it close to a ground. The spark should jump at least 1/8" to 1/4"! Yes. wear gloves or hold the wire with insulated pliars.

Tell us about the gasoline. Is it brand new? Are you sure it's good? Water in it or mixed with diesel or who knows?

The one wire from the dist. to the coil, is it hooked on the (-) or negative side of the coil?

Another important check would, to BE SURE while cranking, that you are getting BATTERY VOLTAGE to the (+) side of the coil! You will have to measure battery voltage while cranking @ the battery then jump over to the coil. It should be very close to the same reading. Like 11.5v. at battery and 11.0v. at the coil. An easy check for this is to have a jumper wire, attach one end to the (+) battery and the other side to the coil (+) and try to start it. If it starts take the jumper wire off.