Problem solved. As I said there is a mark in the pulley that lloks as if it was made with a chisel. This I thought was the timing mark. However there is another much less obvious mark (mostly filled with paint) that is the true timing mark. That is about 4cm away from the larger mark. Having stripped the distributor to check for weight mobility and reset the static timing everything appears ok. I have about 10 degrees at idle (800rpm or so) and peaking at 30 degrees. That is with the vacuum advance disconnected. It/s almost 40 degrees with the vacuum pipe on. I thought the vacuum advance was only active at low revs.
So I went out for a drive of three or four miles. Everything ok except that when I got back on to the drive the engine cut out and would not start again. It would catch but stop straight away. We had to push it back into the garage. A few minutes later it started ok. Very strange. Vapour lock? Non vented fuel filler? It was ok for our long trip last week. Oh the joys of old cars!!
