[V8TV]

Originally Posted by camcojb

the "lonely" white line is not TDC and not where you want to be to drop in the distributor. The white line at the mark "0" is TDC, but not necessarily ready for the distributor to drop in either.

Pull the #1 plug, plug the spark plug hole with your finger and slowly turn the engine over by hand until you feel/hear compression push past your finger. You should be approaching the tdc line with the "0". I like to stop at say 16 degrees before tdc (or whatever idle timing you want to run). Drop in the dist with the rotor pointing towards the #1 plug terminal. Turn the key to "on" (don't crank) and attach the #1 plug wire to the spark plug, and ground the plug terminal onto something metal. With the key on slowly turn the distributor until the plug fires, and lock the distributor down at that position. Re-install the #1 plug and wire and the engine should be ready to fire.

Jody

Good trick, Jody!