Here Goes - Asuming like me, your pretty much a novice - here's what I did. Firstly, read rubjohnny's excellent link above, then read it again and inwardly digest.
1. Make a note of where your plug leads connect. Looking at your engine from the front, cylinders are numbered 1,2,3 and 4 from left to right. On the distibutor, the connection nearest the engine block is to cylinder No.1 then going clockwise, you got No.3, No.4 and No.2. If you don't know this, do what I did and draw a piccy! Remove your dizzy cap, disconnect leads from spark plugs, and remove your plugs (makes it easy to move car in step 2 )
2. Put car in 5th gear, and pull the car slowly forward until the piston in No.1 cylinder is exactly at the top of its stroke - you can insert something like a thin piece of dowel into No. 1 cylinder to feel when the piston is exactly at the top.
3. Remove your rocker cover, and top section of cambelt cover - haynes manual useful here to locate all the nuts and bolts you need to undo. Now look at the cam pulley - there should be a mark scored or punched on the inside face. This should be exacly lined up with the top of the cylinder head. Mine wasn't - it was about two pulley teeth away. If it doesnt line up, you need to slacken off the cambelt tensioner and move the cam pulley so the mark lines up. Get a feel for the tension on the belt first so you know the tension you need when you tighten it back up - sure I've read on here that you should just be able to twist it through 180 degrees using finger and thumb pressure. Now the mark lines up, tighten up the cam belt tensioner adjusting for the correct tension.
4. At this point, think sh*t, I'm way outa my depth here, the damn thing's never gonna start again!
5. Look at the rotor arm on the distributor - it should be pointing to the No.1 position towards the engine block. There's a small nothch on the distributor body that marks No.1. Mine was so I'd no need to undo slacken the cam belt and adjust the intermediate shaft. Replace cam belt, and rocker covers, and refit the distributor cap and plug leads in the correct order, hoping that as in my case, you four year old daughter hasn't nicked the nice piccy you drew of where everything goes, and scribbled all over it.
6. That's the valve timing sorted - next I meticulously followed rubjonny's post to get the dizzy timing spot on.
7. Sit in awe and wonder when your car starts and grin at just how much better it sounds, and how cleanly it revs, and how instant the response when you open the throttle! Go for a self congradulatory beer, and feel justifiably smug!
There's probably something I've missed, or got wrong, but it worked for me and the difference is quite astonishing. Hope it's of use to someone.
Mr_slightly_less_angry.
