Hi All, Last week I replaced my stock cast iron intake and carb.Having put everything back together,the car wouldnt start.Ugh.I marked the dist before and after it came out.Got it pretty close to the marks I had made originally.I pulled out the dist,and now I have to find TDC to put the dist back in since this time I didnt mark it.I am pretty much on my own and need any help I can find.I have read that I need to pull the number 1 plug and put my thumb over the hole while doing short bursts with the engine until I feel compression on my thumb.Then I need to slowly move the crank pulley until I get the timing mark to zero.First of all I have looked in the area where this timing mark is suppose to be and I cant find it.The engine is a 305.Any help would be nice . Thanks, Smoothjazz

howdy there


when you feel a little air pushing out of the plug hole as you rotate the crank then you are almost there; just keep turning the crank til the mark is on the zero on the tab...
most have the round hollow tube thing on the timing tab which is dead on zero TDC of #1 piston.
look for that tube thing and put the dampner line on it
you could also just use a flexible length of wire or something in the spark plug hole to tell you when the piston is TDC.


now you will have to check the slot in the top of the oil pump shaft down there in the dizzy hole

it needs to be aligned with the front corner of the engine, at the #1 cylinder so the rotor will be pointing at #1

now you can drop in the dizzy with the rotor turned back a bit back before #1 position so it will rotate as the gears intermesh when it is dropped down and end up pointed at #1 cylinder


tighten the bolt just enough to keep the dizzy from rotating on its own by accident, so you can rotate and adjust timing

this is usually how i leave them be when i am done, on my own engines anyways,

maybe not on other ppls engines



have fun!!

Timing marks- look straight down behind the water pump.

Thanks for the info,I must be totally missing it cause I dont see it at all.

yeah it is buried below the water pump pretty good and can be hard to view.. especially on the '80's engines

you have to kinda look for it from the 1 o clock position from above.

you can find it with your hand if you feel below the water pump

Good Morning,
Well..I got up this morning( coffee in hand) and opened the hood in search of the timing marks.I finally found the timing pointer on the damper.
Man..it was buried underneath the waterpump.Good lord, so hard to find.
Will start today to continue to get this car started.Thanks Randy.

Didnt mean to forget about Damon also.Thanks for your help also.