If you don't want to pull the valve cover (real pain on my motor) take out #1 plug. (front plug on passenger side). Use big wrench and crank bolt to turn motor over by hand, if you can. Have someone bump the starter (coil wire removed) if you can't turn by hand. Put your finger in/over the spark plug hole. You will obviously feel the compression when the cylinder starts up on the compression stroke. If your balancer is right, you should be able to move it slightly to get it to 0, TDC.
Now put in your dist. so the rotor ends up pointing at #1 plug position. Vacuum advance should be pointed about 5 o'clock (using 12 o'clock as top of dist towards engine). Rotor should be at 12, or slightly towards 1. Start your wiring, in order, counter clockwise, from the #1 plug location.