Ok, I have wracked my brain over and over again about this and I still have no resolution, forgive my ignorance. I am not mechanically uninclined. I rebuilt a lot of the motor minus reed valves (but not spitting fuel back from carbs). Its a 1980-1981 model merc 140 ser. 574.... My problem is with the timing. I have yet to figure it out even with all the extensive reading of this site and my seloc manual. 1st, the flywheel needed to be ajdusted for the tdc. My flywheel has the decal .464 21...........6543..0..3456 (close to that). Is the numbers to the left of 0 the btdc or atdc? When I adjust the flywheel for tdc I located tdc of the piston--do I match the flywheel decal 0 with that measurement and make my pointer match 0 or do I match the flywheel decal .464 with the piston tdc measurement to my pointer? The way I'm reading it in the book it says to match pointer to .464, but that's after using dial indicator to adjust before and then back to .464 on the dial indicator (I don't know what .464 is on my dial indicator 
). As it is I have the pointer matched to tdc of piston and matched to the 0 on the decal. Now, based on what I have: pointer tdc to 0, adjust 1st throttle p/u to btwn 3-5 btdc (#s to the left of 0 or right of 0???) and max advance to 21 (self explanatory, except I don't know if 21 is btdc or atdc). I'm thinking that the #s to the left of zero are my btdc, confirm please? And in which case I am having a hard time making it idle below 1000 rpm. It has unused rpm, fuel, mph gauges and I'm wondering if I may have gotten the wrong rpm gauge. But I ordered them about 6 yrs ago and I have yet to use the boat (put on back, back burner for quite some time). It had a bad stator then, which I replaced then. It had a broken trigger, which I just replaced. It has good spark and the switchboxes are in working order. The carbs have been thoroughly cleaned and rebuilt. Everything is good to go short of the link and sync. Sorry for the long winded post but, I have searched till my fingers are blue and I don't really want to go pay someone else to do something that I SHOULD be able to do with no problem. I will check into maybe getting another rpm gauge just to make sure I have the correct one? I have a teleflex morse/red international 0-8000 rpm series, I think. Any suggestions on what exact kind of tach I need? Again, sorry for long post and any help will be so greatly appreciated.
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). As it is I have the pointer matched to tdc of piston and matched to the 0 on the decal. Now, based on what I have: pointer tdc to 0, adjust 1st throttle p/u to btwn 3-5 btdc (#s to the left of 0 or right of 0???) and max advance to 21 (self explanatory, except I don't know if 21 is btdc or atdc). I'm thinking that the #s to the left of zero are my btdc, confirm please? And in which case I am having a hard time making it idle below 1000 rpm. It has unused rpm, fuel, mph gauges and I'm wondering if I may have gotten the wrong rpm gauge. But I ordered them about 6 yrs ago and I have yet to use the boat (put on back, back burner for quite some time). It had a bad stator then, which I replaced then. It had a broken trigger, which I just replaced. It has good spark and the switchboxes are in working order. The carbs have been thoroughly cleaned and rebuilt. Everything is good to go short of the link and sync. Sorry for the long winded post but, I have searched till my fingers are blue and I don't really want to go pay someone else to do something that I SHOULD be able to do with no problem. I will check into maybe getting another rpm gauge just to make sure I have the correct one? I have a teleflex morse/red international 0-8000 rpm series, I think. Any suggestions on what exact kind of tach I need? Again, sorry for long post and any help will be so greatly appreciated.geb