Thank you all for your responses. Here are my responses;

To BLUE244, when I crank the engine over it just cranks and cranks, just like you had taken the coil wire off; no pops, nothing. The last time I cranked for 30 seconds, then again for 30 seconds more, and it did sound like the engine was speeding up.

To DJ, I have a new set of copper plugs, rotor, cap and wires on the way. I have to admit that I drive very gentle, accelerate softly so the engine has not been over 3,000 RPM since I got it, I think it spins about 2,800 RPM when doing 70mph on the freeway. So the idea of putting the car in 2nd or 3rd gear and punching the accelerator is foreign to me, but I am willing to try it.

Lee, this business of putting oil into the combustion chamber, does not mess up oxygen sensors or cat converters? Will Marvel Mystery Oil work? I have a little squirt gun I use to oil my pneumatic tools I could use for that.

Question; what does it mean when the tach needle does not move while cranking? This seems to point again to a distributor/coil/rotor or cap, although as i said earlier, there seems to be enough of an electic impulse on the wire to make the induction timing light flash.

Best to all of you

Charlie
'94 855
'88 244