Classic/Antique Car Repair: dist, cap firing order, compression stroke, firing order

Question
hi   i have a chevy 230 in a 1965 nova    can you tell me where on the dist. cap does the number 1 plug wire go?  the cap doesnt have a 1 to look for    thank you

Answer
It goes on any terminal on the cap! But the terminal you want is the one that the rotor is pointing to when the #1 cylinder is ready to fire its plug; you can tell when this is ready by lining up the timing mark on the pulley or flywheel and making sure that the #1 cylinder's piston is at TDC, which you can find by removing the spark plug in the #1 cylinder and shining a strong light into it to see the piston top, or you can insert a pencil into the cylinder to check if the piston is all the way up on its compression stroke.

When these two conditions are present--timing mark lined up, and piston in #1 at top, wherever the rotor is pointing is where the #1 spark plug lead goes.

--Paul