Thank you. I fumbled around with it as you mentioned and was probably turning the cam gear, however I'm going to tinker more over the holiday and see if I can get the distributor to fall into place. Luckily, access and the amount of time to make these subtle changes only take a few minutes. I think you are absolutely right about too much pressure causing the gear to turn. I will try the long screw driver method and see if I can get the desired result.

As for seeking 18-22 degrees BTDC, the shop manual indicated that is the preferred setting.....not sure if the comment about 10 degrees is regarding ignition timing or something else....At the current 15 degrees (which by the way doesn't bounce around +- a couple degrees, tells me the distributor is in good shape) I'm running too rich and not getting complete combustion.