Hello Robbp, welcome to the club.
Regarding the damper, it could either be for a van, some were timed from underneath I believe.. OR, the outer ring could've spun. Will the engine run with the distributor 180 degrees out? No. What you can do is verify # 1 at TDC, and remark that spot on the damper. RSpears on this site has a cool way to verify tdc, when he comes along maybe he can share the link to it again? Then, If you have (or can borrow) a degree wheel, you can plot out before tdc and after tdc.

But you're probably better off verifying that the outer ring hasn't spun before doing all that... And I'm thinking you need to do a lot of verifying.. things like the valve lash settings, spark plug gaps, vacuum lines for cracks or breaks, fuel filters for debris... things like that.

Sounds like many hands have been in that soup and you need to know what is right or wrong with no assumptions. Do you have a vacuum gauge? I have a feeling you'll need one before this challenge is over!