[oldford2]

Originally Posted by rotorwrench

The crankshaft goes through a fair amount of degrees from the time the piston tops out until it starts going back down. You can use a finger over the spark plug bore to tell that then just a bit more to the timing dot. You might end up one tooth off if you do it too early.

Yup, that is how Walt Dupont taught me. Have the wife hold her thumb tightly over #1 hole. Then turn the crank over quickly by hand with a bar. When it blows her finger off you will know you are on the compression stroke. Then bring it up to line up the pimple and pointer. Insert the distributor with the rotor on and keep inserting it until the rotor is pointing at the #1 wire in the cap. Close enough to get it running. Use a timing light to set advance on the pulley mark. John