Small block chev starts good, runs good, but can't see timing mark???

How can this be? The 1985 Pontiac 305 in my roadster pickup runs great, (I just put a rebuilt quadrajet on it). I put new timing chain and sprockets on it when I took it out of the donor car. I had the distributor out of the engine while the engine was being cleaned and painted. Now everything is reassembled, and it runs great----starts good, idles great, and has a nice crisp throttle response. The thing thats driving me crazy, is that with my timing light on number one plug, I can not see the damn timing mark. I can't even rotate the distributor enough to make the timing mark come close to the timing pointer side of the motor. If I had installed the timing chain or sprockets incorrectly, I'm sure the engine wouldn't run at all, or certainly not as well as it does. The engine was running good when I removed it from the donor car, however I never put a timing light on the engine before I took it out of the car, so I'm not sure that the timing mark was in the correct place even then. I have heard that timing marks on harmonic balancers can slip because of the rubber dampening material in the dampener, but could they slip 180 degrees, or far enough that they wouldn't even be on the correct side? This is making me nutso.

I suppose it could slip that far. You can have yours rebuilt by these guys, better than new for around $50.
http://members.aol.com/damperdoc/

have you got the sensing wire of the light on the front cyl on the drivers side, if you dont you wont see the mark. another possibility is if you have a degree timing light make sure the dial is on O and you should see 10-12 degrees on the balancer if its timed right or set the dial on the light to 10-12 degrees and you should see zero on the balancer. also make sure your vacum advance on the dist is unpluged, when you plug that in you mark will move out of site also, plug it back in after its timed though.

could you possibly have a miss match timing chain cover/ dampner combo ? I think mid 80s 305s had the cover with the timing mark near the top of the dampner...you looked down behind the water pup to see the mark.

Timing mark found!!!! Sneaky friggin thing was hiding. This morning I hunted around untill I found my old timing cover, and on a 305 the timing "0" pointer is directly above the crank snout. The new bolt on timing pointer that I have is for a 350, and sets at about 1:30. I just fired the engine and took the timing light around to the passenger side of the car----sure enough, there was my timing mark, setting at top of dampener , about 12 to 15 degrees past TDC towards the passenger side of the car,which took it out of my range of vision when I was standing on drivers side of car. Big sigh of relief---everything is O.K.---hot damn, I'm just as smart as I thought I was.---Sure did have me worried though. Had a terrible night, dreamed about having to pull engine out/apart and fix something horrible that I'd screwed up. Engine started this morning stone cold, automatic choke worked, only turned over about 1/2 revolution then fired and ran like a clock.----Thank you Car Gods---Thank you, fellow forum members.