I stabbed it at what i thought was tdc based on the book. Turned out that when i tried to fire it it backfired. Well my grandfather suggested it may be 180 so i moved the plug wires forward 180 and no when i went to start it with the little bit fuel in the carb it wanted to fire. So i guess i better move the dizzy if i want to be able to time it correctly with the timing light.
Set the p;ug wires back to how they should be and just restab the dizzy.
I've often done intake installs and screwed up where the dist was stabbed. If it wants to start, spin the dist until it starts to run better. You may need to restab it a tooth over if you run out of room to turn the dizzy
pull number 1 plug. have a friend stick a finger in the spark plug hole. get in the car and bump the start(unplug coil to keep engine from starting) keep bumping it one step at a time until your friends finger gets pushed out of the hole. this means cyl one is on the compression stroke.
now grab a big socket and look down at your timing mark and balancer, you should find that the pointer should be fairly close to the 0* BTDC mark.
take your wrench and socket and turn the engine whichever direction to get the 0 on the mark. this is TDC on cyl #1's compresion stroke.
now look at your cap and plug wires. generally number one plug wire is around the 11oclock position on the cap (if your standing in front of the car)
now take your diz cap off and note where the rotor is pointing, if the car is in time, the rotor should be under the plug wire #1's terminal. if not the timing is off.
to fix this, take a 1/2" socket or dizzy wrench and take of the dizzy hold down. pull the distributor out of the hole ( dont have to pull it completely out, just enough to get the gears out of mesh)
then rotate the shaft, you will be able to spin the rotor and dizzy shaft without moving the housing itself. now your goal is to stab the dizzy and have the rotor right under the number one terminal. sort of tricky in a way, because the rotor will move clockwise slighly when you slide the dizzy in (due to the helical gears)
so put your rotor bug slightly counter clockwise of number 1, then slide the dizzy down, if your on the right tooth the rotor will move clockwise slightly and come to a stop under number one which usually is around 11oclock like i said.
note your will be able to move the dizzy housing around while its loose. so just make sure your number 1 terminal is able to cross both side of the rotor tip. this means you can advance and retard the timing. if your a tooth off you may not be able to turn the dizzy enough to time the car.
just eyeball the rotor as close as you can under the number one terminal. put your spark plug in a the car should be close enough to start fairly easy, if not, have a buddy twist the dizzy slightly while cranking and see if it starts then.
once its running, you can proceed to adjust with the light to dial in the timing perfectly.
hope this helps..
you can time the car anywhere the dizzy sits but your have to move all your plug wires around and its just a hassle.
and you can find TDC even easier if you have the passenger valve cover off, you can watch the rocker arms while rotating the engine by hand and find TDC fast.
If you can spin your dist all the way around you can time it anywhere. Us EFI guys only have a limited range, so sometimes we can't time it all the way around. That's when you hear guys say they are a tooth off, so the need to restab it 1 over and retime it.
If you cas physically spin yours, then set up the plug wires on the cap how they shoud be and spin it 180*. If it fires up you can just restab the dizzy 180* from where the rotor is pointing just so your wires and vac lines aren't all tangled around
I thought I was having the same 180 degree problem.
But when I pulled the number one wire completely away from the other wires it started flashing in the correct place.
Check it before you re stab.