'87 2.3L Timing Belt Help

[spikeekips]

Forgive me if I missed a post about this already, but I searched and couldn't find anything about my particular situation. I just spent the better part of the afternoon replacing my timing belt, and when I got everything put back together the truck won't start. While I am new to Rangers, I am not new to engine work. I thought I read something in one of the forums that said to line up the auxiliary shaft sprocket mark with the the Cam sprocket timing mark, but apparently I was mistaken. It sounds like the ignition is trying to fire on the wrong part of the stroke. My question is, is there a better way to see if all the sprockets are lined up correctly, other than making sure the crank is at TDC, making sure the auxiliary shaft is set up so that the distributor is pointing at the #1 wire, and the Cam sprocket is lined up with its timing mark? Or is that even correct?
I have a Chilton manual, but it doesn't seem to reference auxiliary shaft timing marks.
Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[shadetree]

There are no timing marks for the aux shaft on an 87.

Cam has a triangle on one of the teeth. This mark is aligned with the center of three marks on the rear timing cover approx the 5 o'clock position.

The crank keyway slot should point straight up. There is a small dot on one of the teeth of the crank gear. This dot will point to the edge of a gap in the crank seal cover at about the 1 o'clock position.

You will need to align the rotor cap to fire on #1 spark plug.

Align everything, tension the belt, then turn the engine over by hand (clockwise if standing in front of the engine) a couple of times. Do not turn the engine in the opposite direction of rotation, it will skip teeth.

Re-check the timing marks. You will sometimes have to reset the marks.shady

 

[spikeekips]

Thanks for the info. That's what I thought, but I wanted someone to confirm it before I tear into it again. Don't suppose you know any magic way to swap out the motor mounts on the same truck ? I have seen a few posts, but all of them seem to say the job is a PITA and there's not much way around it.