On 2/21/2020 at 6:41 PM, siteunseen said:

Turn the valve cover upside down and lay the gasket down on it.  You'll see right away.

great! ill keep an eye out for that. Headed over to the garage tonight

  On 2/21/2020 at 7:02 PM, moozieman said:

great! ill keep an eye out for that. Headed over to the garage tonight

Okay. Completely different question now. I was able to get it running pretty steadily with the new gasket and everything, but it started a new issue... of course. The distributor started making a grinding noise and was rattling a bit as well. Sometimes the car doesn’t even turn over. It’ll start grinding and then stall. Any ideas?

  On 2/22/2020 at 3:53 PM, moozieman said:

Okay. Completely different question now. I was able to get it running pretty steadily with the new gasket and everything, but it started a new issue... of course. The distributor started making a grinding noise and was rattling a bit as well. Sometimes the car doesn’t even turn over. It’ll start grinding and then stall. Any ideas?

It didn’t start doing it until after running for a while, not sure if that’s a coincidence or not.

Sounds like a bad distributor but that's just too easy to say. 

Here's my "go to" on everything 280.  This is a ZX dizzy but they're pretty much the same except for the matchbox ignition module.  You could read over it and maybe something will light that bulb in your head.  I know I've found loose ball bearings in mine when I first bought it.  It may be as simple as the reluctor being out of spec?

http://atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/distributorrebuild/index.html

Thank you Phillip for putting this together!  It's been a big help to a lot of us.  @240260280

  On 2/22/2020 at 3:53 PM, moozieman said:

Any ideas?

Take the cap off?  Look?

  On 2/22/2020 at 5:08 PM, Zed Head said:

Take the cap off?  Look?

Looked into it a little. Can’t figure it out. There’s no consistency to the fails either. Sometimes it does it, sometimes it doesn’t. Mainly when I rev or attempt to put it into gear. Thoughts?

Post a picture with the cap off.  We don't even know what kind of distributor you have,

  On 2/23/2020 at 3:29 AM, Zed Head said:

Post a picture with the cap off.  We don't even know what kind of distributor you have,

I'm not at the garage. I will upload a pic of my own, but maybe this is sufficient for now? This is my exact setup.

Four posts up.  siteunseen's post.  The grinding noise is probably teeth on teeth.

Note sure why the post numbers are gone.

  On 2/24/2020 at 1:19 PM, moozieman said:

I'm not at the garage. I will upload a pic of my own, but maybe this is sufficient for now? 

Need the same picture, but from yours.

  On 3/2/2020 at 6:10 PM, Zed Head said:

Need the same picture, but from yours.

just started a new thread with the exact issue and photos.

  On 3/2/2020 at 6:12 PM, moozieman said:

just started a new thread with the exact issue and photos.

I saw it.  But they are the wrong photos.  You need this one without the rotor.  Closeup.  to see if the shaft has play.