ORIGINAL: ply2win

I am still working on trying to get this engine to start. I tried replacing the battery and that made no difference so I assume the only two things it could be are the timing or the box. I decided to go ahead and try to check the timing. I have been reading up on that but I'm still not exactly sure how to check it or how I would change it even if it is wrong.

When I was looking at it I did notice something that seemes a bit strange to me. When I set the piston to TDC the magnet is quite a ways past the pickup. I don't claim to know a whole lot about engines but it seems that the plug would be firing pretty early.

Here is a picture of what I am talking about. In the picture the piston is at TDC. Is that the way it is supposed to be?