From what I read in your post, I take it that your timing light does not have an advace knob on it, correct? That would explain why you're not seing the BB in the flywheel. Nothing wrong with the method you used, as others mentioned, it is a good option.
I've found that with modern gas, these engines like a bit more advance than the original specs. I'm running 15 degrees advanced on mine, but I do not have a vacuum advance unit on my distributor (aftermaket Mallory).
