Your neihbor needs to buy the beer. You are right. If the gears were wiped out it wouldn't have been running & the dist wouldn't turn. You have the dist. out of time. Get under the truck & remove the lower cover on the flywheel. Turn the flywheel till you find thesteel ball. Put a big chalk or paint mark around the steel ball. Pull #1 plug & turn the engine till you feel comp. coming out the plug hole. Then turn it till the mark on the ball shows up in the opening over the starter. Your dist. rotor should be pointing to #1 cyl. & the points should be just starting to open.
