I am adjusting the timing and while reading out of my chilton it says "For all fuel injected engines ground diagnostic terminals a and b in the ALDL diagnostic connector" Now i thought all you had to do is loosen the distributor bolt and then turn it to adjust? Anybody have this problem or just loosen the bolt and go from there?

 

Connecting terminals "A" and "B" together puts the ECM into diag mode. Not sure what it does, if anything, to the timing.
There's usually a connector under the hood that needs to be disconnected to check ign timing. On a TPI, it's by the A/C box on the pass side firewall. Post what eng and year you have and I'm sure someone can help you out.