Gatsby---In addition to what 54Tow and Baldeagle/others have said:
As long as you have the rotor pointing directly at the passenger fender when #1 is TDC, just make sure that the clips that hold the distributor cap on are directly straight with the firewall and radiator(the flat parts of the clips should be facing the radiator and firewall). This will get you well within the ballpark for getting your truck started. If your truck still doesn't start, something else is wrong. This is how I tuned in my motor to get it running and I just barely rotated it counterclockwise to get it running the best I could without tuning the carb. At this point, as the others have said, timing with a light is not necessary. I probably just restated everything that baldeagle has said but I thought it might help...
