This is not true. Only one direction is no1 compression. 1/2 turn off, otherwise known as "180 out" is NOT on no1 compression stroke, but rather on the exahaust stroke. There are two ways to get the dist in correctly and KNOW that it is so. One is to pull no1 plug, stick in your finger, and bump the engine til you START to feel compression. Then immediately start looking for the marks whcih will be coming up. Do NOT set the timing marks at TDC, but rather, where it is that you want initial timing, such as 15 BTC. Now slap in the dist with the rotor at no1, rotate the dist body retarded (CW) and slowly bring it advanced (CCW) until the points open, or the trigger is aligned as far as you can tell. The second way, if you happen to have the rocker covers off, is to bring the marks up to TDC, then look at no1 and no6 valves and find out which pair is open and which pair is near split overlap