Everytime I go to reset my timing, I pull the dist. set it to top dead center and it jumps to 180 out when I try to start it. Three times now this has done it. any help ??

Sounds like there is something mechanically wrong with your distributor or cam.

When you say it jumps to 180 out, I am assuming that you put it in correctly and for some reason the distributor didn't turn?

I know it sounds kind of silly, but, you're putting it in correctly? The distributor is bolted in place? No stripped gears on the distributor? Good timing chain?

Never mind, we found the problem. There was too much play - putting a shim in fixed it. Thanks.