Could someone describe the timing mark or post a picture of it? I see something like a bolt sticking out of the timing cover. If this is it, do I need to remove the AC compressor to set the timing? I can barely see it from the top of the engine and definitely not well enough to judge where it is compared to the marks on the harmonic balancer.

 

On early 289's it's cast into the block as a flat on one of the bosses... You can see it pretty well in this pic at about 1:00 if you were looking at the front of the engine.



Later 289's and 302's have a bolt-on sheet metal pointer that looks like this:



Here is the sheet metal pointer on the timing cover:

 

my sheetmetal pointer is on the opposite side... is that normal?
as in the passenger side.

 

Flash, that would make yours a 302 or at least a 289 with 302 timing pointer. In 68 with the introduction of the 302 they moved the lower rad hose to the drivers side so they had to move the pointer to the other side.

 

okay. thank you. I was confused because he said the 302 and 289 have the pointer and the picture showed it on the drivers side. good information to know.
thanks

 

I found it and am going to have to sand the harmonic balancer to find the timing marks on it. Could somebody with ac on their car explain how they can line up the two timing marks without removing the compressor?

 

That would not be correct. The 289 and 302 both had the pointer on the LH side, and the lower hose on the RH side, 64-69. The swap came in 1970, when the water pump, pulleys, and harmonic balancer were revised.

 

I don't understand the problem. The compressor and compressor brackets are nowhere near the LH mounted timing pointer. The PS bracket comes closer, but even that doesn't block the view of the LH timing pointer. Really. I've been working on these cars for decades, and it's just not a problem. Maybe there's something odd about your car? How about a photo?

This one shows the LH pointer quite clearly:

 

I have another question about whether or not I am at TDC. When I got the engine back from the rebuilder I went on and installed the distributor. The rotor is pointing to the number one plug firing point. Does this mean my engine is at TDC? If not, is there another way to tell?

 

You have a 50/50 chance. It could either be TDC compression stroke or TDC exhaust stroke. Crank the engine with the RH valve cover off and observe the #1 valves.