Distributor Allignment?

[Razmear]

I got the timing belt on and everything put back together.
I had pulled the distributor as part of the figuring out whats wrong phase and need to get the correct alignment.
The manual says there should be a mark on one of the gears that lines up with a mark on the housing, but I see no such mark.
There is a 'key' mark on the bottom of the gear, where the shaft key locks the gear so I used that as the alignment point, and after turning the truck over once, I'm pretty sure that's the wrong mark.
Taking a break and doing some googling before I pull the distributor again to try and get it lined up correctly.
Any hints would be appreciated.

Also, is TDC is the same point where everything else is lined up for installing the timing belt?
I followed the manual and ended up right back where I started, seems like they could have just said line up the arrow if it's the same point.

Thanks,
eb

[LSR Mike]

Set the motor at TDC, and mark the #1 Plug wire position on the distributor with some white out, or marker.
Slip the distributor into it's hole so when the distributor bottoms out the rotor is pointing at your mark. It will take a few times to compensate for the worm gear twist. Now you're static timed at 0 degrees, it should start.

Now for the actual timing. you will need to ground the timing adjust plug to tell the ECU your in maintenance mode. then you can use the timing light to set your timing at 7 degrees atdc

Heres the plug, remove the cover and ground the pin inside with a wire jumper

2679

[Razmear]

Thanks Mike,
I found the mark on the distributor gear. It's a tiny ^ on the flat edge of one gear on the side closest to the mark on the shaft. I set the motor back to the timing mark on the top crank and reinstalled the distributor and it fired up.
It's idling rougher than usual, so now it's time to get the timing dialed in.

Seeing how I don't own a timing light, and was just sitting down to google the procedure, looks like I might have a bit more shopping to do.
(and some googling to figure out what your second paragraph means).

Thanks for the help,
eb

[Razmear]

I just adjusted the timing by ear, moved the distributor to the point where it sounded least bad, seems to be decent enough for now, til I can borrow a timing light and do it right.

[DroppedMitsu]

You dont need to ground anything since you have a carbed motor, you just need to get a timing light and adjuat the dist. To whatever its supposed to be at

[LSR Mike]

OOPS I was thinking 2.4 FI, I missed what year he's got. But Hey it runs!