[tubman]

The first thing to do is to align the "bump" on the front pulley with the pointer on the front cover. You have to make sure that the engine is on the power stroke. You can do that by putting your finger over the No. 1 spark plug hole and turning the engine over. When the compression blows your finger off the hole, it's on the compression stroke. Then turn the engine clockwise (viewed from the front) until the timing "bump" lines up with the pointer. The put the distributor in so the rotor is pointing at the terminal that has the number 1 plug wire. This is usually at 6 o'clock, but could be anywhere depending on who has been in there and what they have done. Generally you will have to put it in a little ahead of where you think it should go to account for the skew of the gears. Once you have the distributor in and the hold down in (loosely), you can try to start the engine. If it doesn't start, try turning the distributor one way or the other until it fires. Once you get it running, you can time it with a timing light.

A way to make this easier to to interpose a light bulb in the points circuit. The bulb will go on when the points close and off when they open. Since the spark is generated when the points open, turn the distributor just until the light goes out. The initial timing should be just about right on. This works well if you don't have a timing light.