Can't advance timing! Hits t-stat housing?

ok well i finally got around to this just today! been too busy...
anyways, my rotor points to the #1 plug on the cap. i yanked the dizzy, rotated it so i won't have clearance issues, and put it back in. now i don't know what i'm doing wrong.!!! when i rotate it too much either way, it just dies! i can't make it ping. the only way it will run nice and still start is where it was before! when i rotate it (clockwise and counter cw, i get a surging idle, and then it dies after about a minute. i can change from like 5* to probably over 30*, with little difference except at those extremes, it sputters out. what am i doing wrong? maybe i need to make a video of what i'm doing? it doesn't make sense to me. i've never done this before...
just noticed the q? - i'm using the pointer not the hole