Distributor gear installation

I got my 318 back from the shop and I’ve been making may way through assembly with many hurdles. I’ve overcome all of them so far with help and advice from friends.

I installed the distributor gear immediately after installing the timing gears and chain. I lined up the groove in the distributor gear and it was pointing at the front intake bolt hole at the #1 cylinder like it says in the service manual and in the posts I found on here. I turned the engine over to install the windage tray, oil pump, pickup tube, and oil pan.

The distributor gear fell out when I rotated the engine upside down on the stand. It startled me but then I realized “well I guess I should have expected that.”

Several days went by but today I rotated the engine upright and mocked up a few things for figment. Then I installed the lifters, push rods and rocker arm assemblies. When it was time to install the distributor gear again, I found TDC on the compression stroke and dropped it in. But now it will only line up with the #5 cylinder or 90 degrees perpendicular to that! WTH?

I tried moving it one or two teeth but it will only drop in the same way each time.

Could the position of the oil pump drive be what’s keeping it from being able to line up the way I want it? Or should I be looking at something else?

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