Long story short. Ive bought an 97 el Fairmont off ebay for $900.00 overall its a decent car for its age @ 211,000kms with a few issues which has now turned into a big issue! driving the car home from the seller I realised the car wouldn't rev past 3500rpm and when it did it sounded like it was blowing out spark, coughing and struggling to the point where it dropped a cylinder. I replaced the following, Plugs, Leads, Fuel filter, injectors, rotor button and distributor cap. Now this got the car running much better but I still could not rev the car past 3500rpm, Removed the catalytic converter to find it had collapsed. Replaced that with the same issue persisting. Now I was driving the car back from footy for it to start to hesitate really bad, dropped a cylinder and packed it in.
I've now replaced the distributor bottom with one from the wreckers, have got spark and have also got fuel but the car will not start! timing I believe to set correctly.
ive gone over the timing 5 times now and ive got it to try and want to fire it was wont keep going!!

ive now run out of options and feel clueless

How have you set the timing?? You must put it into diagnostic mode b4 resetting the dizzy. Trying to do it any other way causes all sorts of issues (Trust me, I know )

Did you replace the ignition coil?

How did the old plugs look when you changed them?

Check for excessive play in the dizzy gear. (Gently, if you turn it hard it will ride up on the gear. If it feels sloppy the auxillary shaft is probably shagged.)

Replace the fuel filter while you're at it.

Auxiliary shaft is stripped...... Finally found it tonight. Next question is there an aftermarket auxiliary shaft

Nup.

Took the aux shaft and drive gear out of an au . Installed and worked a treat!

Is it easy enough to replace the aux shaft? I think mine is f**k. I was told to bin the motor and get a new one or a complete rebuild, because there would be metal filings all up and through it?