Maybe this will help you.

The balance shaft only cares what the camshaft is doing so as long as those two dots are facing each other on the meshed gears the balance shaft rotates at the right time with the camshaft and its lobes.

Now the crankshaft only cares if it brings the proper cylinder to TDC in proper timing to the opening and closing of the valves during the exhaust/intake cycle OR at the top of the compression stroke. The crank and the pistons do the exact same thing twice for every one rotation of the camshaft and the cycle of exhaust/intake and again at compression. That's why the gears are two different sizes, its a 2:1 gear ratio. If you were to rotate the crank continuously you would go once around with the cam dot looking away and after another crank rotation the dots would face each other. The crank does two completely redundant rotations as the cam goes through one slower unique rotation. The crank shaft has a keyway and the cam has a dowel pin so the gears are always aligned properly to their shafts and so just get the dots to face each other. Doesn't matter where the pistons are. That's why there is no mention of any cylinder at any TDC for this step. I don't know of this engine but on chevy 350's I believe that the #1 cyl is at tdc on the exhaust stroke with the dots facing each other. This makes a good alignment of the gears easy but is not the position for distr install.

Now it does matter if you are on the compression or exhaust stroke for the setting of the distributor because it only fires that cylinder on the compression stroke. After the front end is assembled then you get the distr rotor to point to the correct mark at the correct cylinder/stroke which is easy peasey. Then you use cam retard and an adjustable hold down to get the distr position perfect.


George

 

remember, cam sets stroke, crank sets piston. Just shimmy everything until the marks align. install a new chain, and be done with it. manually turn the engine over before cranking it to verify its mechanically ok.