I want to apologize for earlier repetative and annoying posts, I am sorry, I am just agrivated with a boat I just bought and maybe shouldn't have. It ran great when I looked at it. and I thought I was getting a good deal but should have already known there is no such thing, anyway back to the point and an explanation of why I am so annoyed by this boat and maybe to see if anyone is still willing or even able to help. Before I went on the water I knew I was required to install a kill switch. So, to that end I took the ignition switch out of my dash panel, only to discover more rotted wiring than I have ever seen...... 
. To be safe I traced the wiring all the way back and discovered every inch of it was rotting away. I got inside the cover of the engine, same story, a 1974 Mercury 850 Thunderbolt Ign. to be exact, anyway back to my point, wires to the switchbox, stator, rectifier, choke everything, the insulation flaked away just like dried mud (But, what could I expect from a 28 year old motor/boat) . I decided I would start by replacing the stator, well to get at that I had to get the flywheel off, well, I went after the thing with the center nut off with a flywheel puller, would not budge, So I figured oh well, maybe If I take these 8 bolts out, maybe then the thing will come off (didn't mark the thing , smart move on my part). Three days later stator in hand, I noticed that the belt going to the distributor is cracked and has a bit of slack in it, decided it to replace it too, now, up until then the xerox pages from the manual had helped me got the stator and that belt replaced then, It occured to me that I then had no idea how the flywheel had been positioned. It is missing the decal, and all I have is one dot, and the 3 dots in a line?? anyway, I am not really sure how to get this back together, I can handle the wiring, no biggie, got that covered, My best guess that I can come up with is to mark TDC cyl #1 on the flywheel and some stationary point. then point the rotor button in the distributor to plug #1 and install belt (on a side note, the pulley on the distributor does not have an arrow on it as the manual said ), and then use a protractor and a ruler to mark degrees on the flywheel then set the timing according to that?? I don't know if I am on the right track, or If I'm going to maybe burn a hole in a piston trying, I'm sorry I was rude in earlier posts, I didn't mean to be I am just frusterated with this thing and having serious second thoughts about having bought it, not to mention feeling a bit ripped off, and I'm sorry about the choppy structure of this post, but If anyone knows If I am doing this right or how to get the flywheel, and distributor belt installed correctly without the decal only the dots on the flywheel, I would appriciate it very much, and if nobody knows that ok too, just thanks to whoever reads this, and for your time.
. To be safe I traced the wiring all the way back and discovered every inch of it was rotting away. I got inside the cover of the engine, same story, a 1974 Mercury 850 Thunderbolt Ign. to be exact, anyway back to my point, wires to the switchbox, stator, rectifier, choke everything, the insulation flaked away just like dried mud (But, what could I expect from a 28 year old motor/boat) . I decided I would start by replacing the stator, well to get at that I had to get the flywheel off, well, I went after the thing with the center nut off with a flywheel puller, would not budge, So I figured oh well, maybe If I take these 8 bolts out, maybe then the thing will come off (didn't mark the thing , smart move on my part). Three days later stator in hand, I noticed that the belt going to the distributor is cracked and has a bit of slack in it, decided it to replace it too, now, up until then the xerox pages from the manual had helped me got the stator and that belt replaced then, It occured to me that I then had no idea how the flywheel had been positioned. It is missing the decal, and all I have is one dot, and the 3 dots in a line?? anyway, I am not really sure how to get this back together, I can handle the wiring, no biggie, got that covered, My best guess that I can come up with is to mark TDC cyl #1 on the flywheel and some stationary point. then point the rotor button in the distributor to plug #1 and install belt (on a side note, the pulley on the distributor does not have an arrow on it as the manual said ), and then use a protractor and a ruler to mark degrees on the flywheel then set the timing according to that?? I don't know if I am on the right track, or If I'm going to maybe burn a hole in a piston trying, I'm sorry I was rude in earlier posts, I didn't mean to be I am just frusterated with this thing and having serious second thoughts about having bought it, not to mention feeling a bit ripped off, and I'm sorry about the choppy structure of this post, but If anyone knows If I am doing this right or how to get the flywheel, and distributor belt installed correctly without the decal only the dots on the flywheel, I would appriciate it very much, and if nobody knows that ok too, just thanks to whoever reads this, and for your time.