Hi,

The crankshaft has a keyway cut into the outer diameter that the belt sprocket fits on to.
The keyway will align with an aluminum rib casted into front of the engine just behind the sprocket.
This will put the number one piston at the TDC everytime it makes one revolution. It's just that simple.

Now this is where the cam comes in. It decides whether you are on going onto a power stroke or ending an exhaust stroke. The valves will be closed in both positions.
The cams lobes that are over the front cylinder will not be pointing down and pressing on the valves shim buckets.

Just like on the crankshaft there is a dot on the camshaft sprocket that will appear at the top and align with the mark at the top on the engine.
Mechanically speaking it is doing the same thing over and over every revolution!

It the locating of the ignition distributor, firing at or on number one, that decides the firing positions throughout the running of the engine.

I torque the bolt to 45 foot pounds and then hit it with an air impact wrench until it moves almost one flat farther around. I say almost because, if I can't get it to that point, I then figure that the impact has quit moving it, it has gotten it tight enough! You definitely don't want to move it any farther than that one the flat. So for me, it's a safety limit not to over stress the bolt!

Using the rope trick won't hurt anything as long as the cam lobes are pointing up in what ever cylinder you want to use.

Phil