Re: Timing
There is a black wire that attaches to one of the screws that pass through the plate. It is long enough so that it can attach to one of the screws holding the top clamp for the tower and still let the plate move. Coil plate, breaker plate, point plate--yeah, we are talking about the same thing.
As far as the carb, just drain it so you know it is not flooding the engine and ensure that the gas you pour in will eventually clear. Replace the bowl, then pour gas behind the throttle butterfly into the manifold and reeds.
If you have not yet disassembled it, behind the carb is the manifold. behind the manifold is a plate about 1/4 inch thick that holds the reed vee blocks and reeds. Each vee block services one cylinder. Each vee block has 4 reed petals on each side sealing it for a total of eight petals per cylinder.
Reeds are one way valves made of thin spring steel that allow the piston to induct fuel air mix on the upstroke (compression) and seal on the downstroke (power) to blow the mix through the transfer ports into the cylinder and combustion chamber. They are called reeds because they are very much like the reeds of a woodwind musical instrument or a saxophone. Indeed, sometimes you can hear them "honking" as the engine turns over.
This is also part of the engine noise you will or may hear while it is running--if you know what to listen for. Since the reeds are vibrating at, say, 5000 divided by 60 equals 83 cycles per second at full throttle, this is a musical note well above the lower threshold of 20 cycles per second that the human ear can hear. That plus overtones from secondary vibrations.