Reinstalled Distributor, engine won't stay running.

Ok so my idiot brother for whatever reason decides to remove his distributor and somehow it got thrown away. Weeks later he get's a used oem distributor online and throws it in.

We try starting it up and it's running very rough and won't stay running. It'll start up and rev up like normal then when the rpms come down it just shuts off.

Only thing I can think to check for is the TDC alignment. Sure enough the 0 mark on the balancer has the rotor pointing at the number 1 cylinder.

Turning the distributor as you would do when setting the timing makes the car run rougher or smoother depending on the direction i turn it in but it never makes it run good enough to set the timing or keep the engine running.

Any suggestions?

Not sure, I was assuming from the manual that as long as the balancer said 0 and the rotor was at 1 that it was at TDC of compression stroke. Maybe I should stick my finger near the plug hole and find out...

Wtf

Still having issues.

I took out the plug on the number 1 cylinder and manually cranked the engine until I felt compression then cranked it over more (clockwise) until I had it on the TDC mark (0). I aimed the rotor at the number 1 cylinder on the cap and stuck in the distributor. The motor cranks over and does nothing.

How do I know if i was feeling compression on the Exhaust or the Compression stroke?

What am I doing wrong here?