Timing Problem

My 75 is giving me fits trying to check the timing right now... The other day we were doing a tune up on the car and went to check the timing, Well when you put the timing light on the car you can not even find the timing mark on the harmonic balancer.  Well we walk over to the passenger side and turn on the timing light and discover that you can see the mark on that side of the motor.  So now we are totally confussed wondering how the car could run if it was that far out of time.. so we pull the distributor  line up the mark on the harmonic balancer to top dead center and then align the distributer and she isn't won't even start now.. So then we check to see if the number one cylinder is tdc we bring it up and get it their and the timing mark on the harmonic balancer is back on the other side of the motor.  So my question is what could be wrong.. Is the harmonic balancer on wrong or is it something else inside the motor throwing everything off...  Words of advice never buy a car off a damn moron that just throws things back together instead of doing them right in the first place...

 Maybe,  Your balancer is worn out and it has spun ,there are 2 pieces to the balancer,with rubber in between,the rubber deteriorates allowing the outer ring to spin,its time to replace it Ron 782007-07-07 19:53:35

Ron is right on! The balancer has spun...all too common problem. It needs to be replaced before the outer ring comes thru the hood or out thru the bottom of the car....either way, it'll do some serious damage.

If you look very closely at the rubber part between the inner hub, and the outer ring, you'll probably see pieces of rubber sticking out, and cracked. Not very safe. Balancers are not that expensive, around $30-$40...

Well I changed out the harmonic balancer today.. Finally got her to come back into time and run right... All I can say is that is a fairly dificult task to do if you have never done it before..  But I am learning how to do stuff on my own finally....