I am new to the VW lifestyle. I have done a good share of researching
but I can not find a question to my dilemma.

I recently inherited a 1970 Beetle; I am working with the former owner
to get it running. This past weekend we switched out the spark plug
wires and adjusted the timing by ear and we finally got the car to
idle!!!

The only problem is when the former owner hooked up the timing light to
the 1st cylinder (front right cylinder) the 3 notches on the crank
wheel weren't anywhere near the top 12 o'clock position. After
much searching we found the 3 notches to be around the 10:45 position
(if you view the crank wheel as a clock). We turned the distributor
while the car was running but could not get the 3 notches anywhere near
the top without the engine misfiring. Since the 3 notches are on the
left side of the crank wheel I think the engine is running like 60
degrees ahead!

In the current timing position the engine runs great, maybe a little
fast but it runs without any assistance from us.

Is there something we are overlooking? We are running stock 009 on a
1600 SP. All the previous posts indicate that any advanced similar to
the one we have will kill the pistons and I don't want to do that.