New timing chain, can't get distributor to line up

..............and...........after........you.........are.........all........done with all of the above, it turns out that some distributors have the drive tang misplaced from the rotor index by some amount, compared to other distributors. This means that "by the book" it will not "point" as advertised. So the answer is to rotate the plug wires until they are indexed to rotor
....in other words, with engine assembled......remove no 1 plug, bump engine until you feel compression. Watch marks and bring them up to where you want the timing, AKA 10BTC etc. Then drop the distro in with the rotor pointing as close to the no1 tower as you can get. You can either use another tower, if not, or rotate the distributor gear as Rusty described above

Then plug in the no1 wire whever the rotor points, rotate the dist. body a few degrees to get the points open or reluctor / pickup aligned, and you are ready

You can also check timing with a light "on the starter"