Posted by chris case on Thursday, December 30, 2004 at 11:25AM :
In the shops I worked in, shop practice was to bump the engine over until the rotor points straight forward before removing the distributor. Then you can screw around with the dist all you want, just point it forward when you re-install. You might have to make a second try on the geared distributors to advance it one tooth, but unless somebody bumped the engine, it shoukld go right in close enough to fire up- even if a different mechanic re-installs it. Professional shops pull the distributor to change points, lube internals etc, at every tune up. Very simple on our flat-heads with a spline drive, and since you are gonna want to time it anyhow...
Follow Ups: