Distributor timing question

[Don]

Snowed in for a couple days and was watching a u tube video on setting up a dist on a sun machine and a KR Wilson vr126 tool,(which I have both) with timing slider set to middle mark he set the 22 1/2 * and 35* on the sun machine then put dist on the vr126 and set the timing as per the instruction of the tool to get the correct firing point which is what we are looking for,looking at his timing slider it was down to the third mark,,his info was to disregard the marks and the firing point was most important,,,,..so shoveled a path to shop turned up the heat and set up a dist as he said,,,my timing slider didn’t have to be moved ,still in the middle and the firing point was right on,,,put back on sun machine and timing flash was at 0*which it should have been at 2*
What am I missing??? Hoop will have a good answer I’m sure,,

 

[Bill OH]

Distributor machine only shows advance and dwell - your VR126 can be used to also set dwell, but it also establishes the firing point (initial advance). Do not let the 0 degrees fool you on the distributor machine - its ring can be moved to whatever point you want. You can move the ring to show the distributor firing at 0 degrees when the advance is closed and by increasing the rpm of the distributor you can see how much the distributor advances beyond 0 degrees. This why a lot of us put timing marks on the crank pulley by either the hard stop method or zip tie and then use a timing light in lieu of the VR126. Fun time!!!