As listed above. Help/advice please.
I don't have a manual to work from and the the distributer has been out for years and engine has been turned over so now its all out of alinement.
I know when I re fit the dizzy there is a notch near where the cap fits on and that I need the rotor arm in so when I re fit dizzy the center point electrode of rotor arm should be pointing at the notch when fitted. Then that will be on tdc and should be fine to start the car up. Obviously the timing will need to adjusted once it's up and running.
Also I know that I need to get the timing marks on the front engine marks and crank pulley lined up with the notch on the pulley in line with the biggest timing mark to indicate that is also on tdc.
So my question is how can I avoid re fitting the dizzy 180 degrees out. And if it's 180 degrees out will it start ? And how will I know if it is 180 degrees out. ? Possibly when I put a timing light on it I won't be Abel to see the notched Pulley line up on the timing marks because it's 180 deg out.
I don't really want to take the rocker covers off to look at cams but if I have to then that's what I need to do.
The inlet and exhaust manifolds are on so I can't look through the ports to what valves are open or shut.
If do have to take the the rocker covers off I am assuming the valves are closed on no1 cylinder. But still could even get that 180 degrees out. Because I won't know if that's the compression stroke or the non firing stroke

 

Remove #1 spark plug and put your thumb over the hole. Have a helper "bump" the engine with the starter. When #1 is on the compression stroke you'll feel the compression against your thumb. Now turn the engine by hand until TDC is indicated on the timing marks. It's easy to accidentally go too far when "bumping" the engine so might take a couple tries.

Now install the distributor so that the rotor arm points to the #1 spark plug wire position of the distributor cap.

Cheers
DD

 

thanks for that doug thats real helpfull.
why didnt i think of that. doh