Chevrolet: chevytiming, tdc mark, rotor position

Question
i have a chevy 350 and cant get the timing set for some reason, hears what I've been doing ,i get it up on #1 and feel the compression the piston is at the top. so i drop the dis in and set #1 from there ? been working on getting this for 3 weeks please help if you can ,thank you  

Answer
ROBERT;
Hea- well I know how you feel, first off, with the dist. out, take the no#1 plug out. have someone tap the key while you have your finger in the no#1 plug hole, than tap the key, it will pop your finger off when its at tdc. than stop the tapping. now look at the crank pully to see if it is on the tdc. mark if it is off a lil try to turn the engine by hand with the belts etc. so the marks are both lined up at tdc. now take the dist. with the rotor on the no#1 plug wire on the cap. and on the rotor position drop in the dist. so the no#1 does NOT move from the no#1 spot. if it will not drop all the way down into the motor-no problum just hold it on the no#1 spot sop it can not turn, and have some one just tap the key easy till the dist falls into the hole all thw way. and all of this time never let the no#1 spot get moved. now bolt the dist. down snug. but leave enough space so you can just turn the dist a bit if need be. now put the cvap on. and no#1 plug back in and try to start it. you can still move the dist up or back a bit if need be to get it running, do the timeing later. just get it started for now.  do not get up-set it might take you a few times to get it right, shit it took me a few but now I can do it with my eyes closed. ok so god luck. P.S. be shure the points are set . and the cap is cool. and the wires are all in order too.