I know everyone has been tossing and turning in bed all night wondering if I ever figured this out, so I thought I'd update this post.

Rather than trying to find top dead center for a particular cylinder and lining up the rotor with the wire to that cylinder, here is what I did. I made sure that all the plug wires were on the distributor cap correctly and were going to the right cylinders. Then I rotated the cylinder all the way counterclockwise (fully retarded) and tried to start it. When it didn't start, I kept rotating it about 1/8 turn clockwise (advancing it) and trying to start it. When I got to fully advanced it almost started. So I removed the spark plug wires one at a time and shifted them one position clockwise, to give me more advance. After that it started right up. (I was fully prepared to shift the wires like that 8 times to get it started if that was what it took.)

I still have to finish adjusting the timing and the carb idle settings, but it runs pretty good right now. I'm enjoying no throttle lag, which wasn't the case with my prior Lean Burn electronic ignition with computer-controlled spark advance and tired, leaking ThermoQuad carburetor (which I replaced with a 600 cfm Edelbrock Performer).