I had an awful time with this. As Stuart said, you absoulutely must find top dead center for number 1 cylinder before anything will work. Everyone seems to have a different system for doing this.
The system I finally used will probably seem all wrong to everyone else, but here is what I did:
I turned the motor by hand until the number one cylinder intake valve went through a cycle, and quit turning when it reached the point where the rocker was loose.
You must must also be certain you are on the right stroke. To do that I watched the timing marks. When the valve went through its cycle, reached the point where the rocker was loose, and I could see the timing marks, I assumed I must have it in the right position. This may seem wierd, but it worked for me.
I also had an awful time with the timing marks. All the information I could find said the timing mark was a small metal ball imbeded in the flywheel. I didn't have a ball. I had a small round circle, a number of straight marks and a triangle. Since everything I could find said to use the ball, I assumed the circle must have taken its place. That was completely wrong. The right one was the triangle. Once I used that to line everything up, it started on the first try after turning over about two times.
Hope this helps. Allen
PS: You might consider investing in a shop manual. They are available, are not too expensive and are worth their weight in gold. One won't solve all your problems, but it sure will help. They have a lot of good descriptions on how to do things, and a lot of pictures. For example there is a detailed explanation on how to put the distributor back in if the motor has been rebuilt or turned after the distributor was taken out.
