I posted the information below for someone recently.

Click to view attachment

It stuck me as odd somehow so I went out and checked mine. When I am at TDC my rotor points toward the location shown as #3. Now this wire goes to #1 but does this mean my dizzy drive is incorrectly installed?

Car runs well and seems to be timed correctly but the location of #1 is not as shown.

Should I pull the drive and try to fix?

The diagram is correct.
Not sure what is up with your setup

It means your drive gear is 180 off, but as long as your wires reach and no interference between condenser and engine tin it does not matter.

rotate the motor (not the distributor) 180 for TDC

the distributor has an offset key and only goes in one way
sounds like you are 180 off of TDC

Rotating the motor 180 deg will rotate the distributor rotor only 90 deg putting him with it pointing at #2 would it not?

If you want to change it, leave the engine rotation alone and use a magnet to pull the distributor drive out and rotate it 180 degrees, then drop it back in. Then your rotor will be in the 'normal' position.

Or, if it works fine now, don't mess with it.

--DD

You are perfectly fine. Don't change a thing.
The dizzy to engine gear have 1:2 ratio so for every 2 motor revolutions the dizzy makes one. This means that TDC will happen once on plug #1 and next time on plug #3.
I bet you didn't check the valves position to determine TDC. If you rotate the dizzy now it will be out of synch with your valves.

My #1 is where your picture shows #2 with the order the same.

It works fine.

I verified TDC on the impeller and on the fly wheel but it is always possible I miss read the valve position.

Stock dizzy? The SVDA is backwards.

Stock 2.0 dizzy.

Actually, you should probably correct this.

All VW based air cooled engines have a point cam that is 2 degrees retarded for the #3 cylinder. This is done to reduce the head temp. #3 is the farthest from the fan and on the same side as the oil cooler.


The Samba Discussion.


Point cam info for VW engines


It will run fine the way it is, but #3 will run hotter and may detonate before the others. To fix it, pull the distributor drive gear under the distributor, and reinstall it the way the Haynes manual says.

Unless the #1 cylinder wire has been relocated to a different terminal on the cap, the #3 lobe on the cam should still be lined up ok.

Quote from my second link:

"You cannot wire the distributor in just any position even though you use the correct firing order - regardless of your past experience with other cars."