In this position we can assume that the engine is in the place it would normally be to receive spark to #1. That being said, the solid part of the tone ring should be at the sensor.

The solid part of the tone ring crosses the sensor 90 and 270 degrees before each spark while cranking. I say "while cranking" because there is no spark advance before the motor is started; it is timed at zero or TDC. The sensor trigger is done well in advance of when the spark has to happen in order to give the computer the ability to adjust it to happen in advance of TDC, in those six degree increments allowed by counting tone ring holes. The starter is 90 degrees later than the sensor location.

One spark occurs near the moment the missing holes appear at the starter and also 180 degrees from that point, giving two sparks per crank rev. This yields the 4 sparks necessary for each rev of the distributor.

There's an arrow on the flywheel shown in a FAQ photo in the link I provided earlier. It should help make the flywheel position unambiguous. Well, maybe I'm being overly optimistic. The photo in the 700 FAQ is taken with the flywheel not set at TDC, but the text says the arrow should be at 12:00. You can see the index (missing holes) are at the sensor, not the starter, but the arrow would be at the sensor, if the index was at the starter. Clear? Ha Ha.


--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

My goal in life is to be as good of a person my dog already thinks I am.