1st Time Engine Rebuild.... Installing Distributor

Bringing no1 piston to top IS NOT necessarily "ready to fire."

There are only 2 ways to determine if no1 is ready to fire, that is, at the top (TDC) and on compression. First, is there any reason to assume your timing marks are not accurate? if you think not, you need to address this FIRST. You can check them with a piston stop

A...If the valve cover is off, rotate the engine so timing marks are aligned and see if both no1 valves are closed. Be careful, because if they are open they will be nearly equal, and can fool you

B...The second and most popular way is simply remove no1 plug (or all of them) and either wrench or crank the engine over until you feel compression with a finger in the plug hole. Or a balloon, or a compression gauge

Either A or B is IMPORTANT because the no1 only fires every other time the piston comes up top

Now that you have the piston on the correct stroke, you do NOT (necessarily) want the timing marks on TDC. Rather, you want them aligned to whatever mark you want the initial timing

So now that you have the correct stroke, rotate the engine backwards, say, 1/4 turn and then back forwards again, carefully stopping the engine on "where you want" initial timing, let's say 6BTDC.

Now it is a matter of getting the dist into the engine with the rotor aligned "coming to" the no1 plug tower WITHOUT breaking the plastic gear. Also, on a slant, you have limited movement because of the "arc" in the adjustment bracket BUT NOTICE that there is actually TWO adjustments.........the bracket bolt at the motor block, and the bracket bolt under the distributor. You can loosen both of those to get more movement

After you get the dist. set in you can adjust it further to get timing very close to "right on." First use the cap to align and mark the dist housing as to where no1 plug wire tower is. Sight down on top of the rotor, and "coming clockwise" the rotor should be just "to" that point on the approach.

To get it closer:

If you have breaker points: EASY!!! Rotate the dist. body CW which is retarded. Use whatever is easy to obtain a points closed/ open indication. If the car is wired up, you can turn on the key and use a test lamp. You can unhook the dist. primary wire and use a continuity checker. At the last step the points should be closed.

Now rotate the dist body CAREFULLY CCW (towards advanced) until the points just open. Snug down the clamp bolts and you are ready to start the engine

IF YOU have breakerless ignition. Same as above, except the last step, where you rotate the dist CCW you want to stop when the reluctor tooth is centered in the pickup core. THIS IS NOT entirely accurate but is about the best you can do. WHEN YOU get "good" at this, you can wire up the igntion, and move the dist back and forth a few times, and generate a spark at the trigger point. With a bit of practice you can get this fairly close

AND LAST Before you turn the thing loose with fuel, you can use a timing light "on the starter" to check timing. This should not take more than about 5 seconds of cranking