Good on ya. That's exactly how I do it.

So I got my swapped dizzy to work... and for future reference this is how I did it.

I swapped an A12 dizzy into an A14 motor.

First swap over the adjusting plates on the underside of the dizzy. I found that my A14 dizzy's adjustment plate was a little different to the A12's.

Find TDC of cylinder #1 by looking at the the valves and the timing mark on your pulley.

With the dizzy out of the car put the dizzy cap on (with the rotor in there a well) and mark on the outside body of the dizzy (with a marker or something) the centre of the number 1 contact (where you're going to put the number 1 high tension lead.)

Take off the dizzy cap and turn the rotor so it's pointing at the mark before sliding the dizzy back into the engine block. When you get toward the bottom the rotor is going to want to slide anti-clock wise (in the direction of the firing order) so you want to turn the rotor clock wise about 20 degrees or so. So when the dizzy is fully installed it is as close as possible to the mark you made before.

Put in the adjusting screw but leave it a little loose to fine tune the timing later. Install your spark plugs high tension lead and everything else you've disconnected.

Start the car and set your timing. I use roughly 10 degrees base timing at about 800rpm. Then set your dwell after that.

Worked for me.

Will do mate, cheers.

I have used A14 and A15 distributors in A12, and A12 in A14. No problems.

I suggest that first you fix the idling problem. Then disconnect (and plug) the vacuum advance hose and adjust the timing to 7 degrees BTDC.

Yeah... it was idling quite high... probably about 1500 rpm maybe more and I did try a reduce the idle speed by adjusting the carby idle but then timing was still way out.

The engine came out working and I had tuned it before and the timing mark on the pulley worked for me.

But now that I've swapped the dizzy, what would you suggest DD?

More likely your measurement is way off, and the actual timing is pretty close.

Timing is measured at idle speed (800 RPM or less) with vacuum advance hose disconnected.

Ahh ok... thanks for that mate...

You're talking about the adjustment plate yeah? I'll compare the two and try to get them the same...

So you got the engine to TDC as well then installed the dizzy and it was still way out

Gday D1t, make sure you compare your 2 dizzies, i swapped dizzies over not long ago, and had the same problem, at TDC it was WAY out...

pull off the dizzy and have a look at the adjustment screws underneath and make sure they are the same before you do anything else!
someone may have moved the adjustment heaps one way or the other like mine...

it had me f**ked for ages why it wouldnt time when i was doing everything right, and that was the culprit.

Hope that helps and good luck

cheers fella... so i'll find tdc of number 1... line up the rotor with the contact of the number 1 lead and that should get me going to fine tune after that... sounds easy enough.

Ohh and having a whole bunch of timing (30 odd degrees) would raise my temps very high yeah? and leave my plugs with a bunch of carbon all over them?

You can;t just spin it and stick it back in. When it is idling rough turn it in it's place (c-wise and ac wise), using the adjustment screws (or not). Whilst turning it you will find one way will yield a better idle this will tell you how far off you are and what direction to reset the dizzy shaft to.

Have you got the manual?

There is a section in there for timing etc.

EDIT
Take the tappet cover off, manually turn the engine over (take out the plugs for easier spinning). Turn it until you see cylinder one 'on the rock' where it has completed it's intake stroke and it is at the end of the compression stroke - the position of the valves will be an indication of what stroke it is at.

The rotor on the distributor should be contacting the lead for cylinder one, using your firing order (is it 1342 or 1432? double check) put the right leads to the right cylinder.

When this is all done you can fine tune by using the adjustment on the dizzy.

If this fails check that all spark leads are getting power, while you are at it clean all the contacts (rotor end/button, distributor cap buttons & the point inside/underneath the rotor).