when i put a new timing chain on the dots weren't lined up with the crankshaft gear dot on top and the camshaft gear dot on the bottom, but instead it was the crankshaft dot on top but the the camshaft dot was on top. my truck's a stock 80 f-150 ranger explorer with a big equalized hitch and a 3 degrees timing so i don't know if that alignment is normal for that truck or got out of aline over time? it has abour 86,000 on it. Should i fix it and alined them accordingly or just leave it? thanks.

 

I may be wrong on this, but I'm thinking that if the cam is off by half a turn compared to the crank, it will try to fire cylinders at the end of each of their exhaust strokes. That is when the cylinder comes up to the other TDC. It wouldn't run like that obviously, so the distributor would have to be swung around 180 degrees the wrong way. Or, somebody pulled the distributor, turned the shaft 180, and put it back in the right way. Does that make sense?

 

it was actually stupid on my behalf, if you keep rotating it more the crankshaft goes around one more time and the camshaft gear moves down to the bottom and they're aligned. so no problem there.