You guys did a great job of leading him through this. When I first read this I said, Where do you start? Odds are he's going to be a notch off, Heck we all were ,and sometimes getting that dist. to drop down in hole is more difficult. Did anyone tell him sometimes it wont drop right in correctly and he may need someone bumping the starter over.and he holding the dist. down.How did we learn this ? When I was 15 and rebuilding my flat head ford, when I pulled the motor down with my father ,I couldn't find the bearings. I think I was looking for ball bearings. By the time I was 16-17 I had surpassed my dads automotive skills and was changing camshafts , intake and carbs,4 speeds and positractions on my 56 chevy,left ford and never looked back. Us old geesers had something else to deal with.Back then we used the gaskets at the front and rear of the intakes. Does anyone remember changing a cam,lifters and timing chain ,getting everthing laced back together , having it running just fine,feeling very good about our accompolishment ,only to discover that the rear intake gasket had squished out and you had a heck of an oil leak. Very Disheartning.Where did a lot of us old geesers learn? I think I learned from reading every hot rod magazine from cover to cover. I'll bet a lot of you did too. How about a Chiltons Motor manual?Step by step instructions. CSFO 3716 You're right! it is! going to be! a long one!