A friend pulled his distributor assy (don't ask why) during a complete tune up and now has gooned up the timing. I know basically the procedure for timing it all back up, but in case there's an easy short cut to be utilized I'm asking the question.

1996 7.4 DPX? EFI duo-prop.

Any quick and easy's would be appreciated before I head over there next week to lend a hand...

Pull the number 1 spark plug.
Bump the motor (with the ignition kill switch pulled)
to get that piston at the top. put the distributer in with the roter pointing at the #1 cylinder. Start it and adjust to around 8 degrees.

Make sure you're on the compression stroke when installing the distrib. No#1 piston can be at the top and you still could be 180 degrees off with the distributor if not on the compression stroke. If you go to start it and it backfires, you can bet it's 180 off

The easiest way is to pull all of the spark plugs except for #1. Crank the engine over by hand until it becomes hard to turn. That means that you are on the compression stroke for #1 cylinder. Lay the distributor cap alongside the distributor and drop in the dist. were you think the rotor will point to the #1 plug wire when the cap is installed.
Good Luck
Dennis Moore