I know that this has been discussed before, so my apologies for
bringing it up again. I'm installing my distributor and need to find
TDC on #1, so I went back through the archives to find the correct
method. Engine is 2.0 aircooled (1983 Vanagon).

Most of them speak of finding the compression stroke on #1 by putting
one's finger over #1 spark plug hole while rotating clockwise. Once
that has been identified, place a dowel into the spark plug hole and
watch it go up and down - the high point is TDC.

Seems this wouldn't work on a vanagon engine, with the pistons laid
out sideways? When I place anything into the hole it moves side to
side when I rotate the crankshaft back and forth, and eventually gets
jammed.

I saw someone mention the 'squeeze' method using some flatstock -
place some thin metal into the spark plug hole, rotate clockwise until
the metal is squeezed between piston and head. Makes more sense to me.

So, if this method is correct, is the squeeze point (plus a tiny
fraction of a rotation to make up the thickness of the metal feeler)
TDC? Are there better, alternative methods?

Also, when rotating the crankshaft by hand using the flywheel, there
are definite easy and hard sections, even with all of  the sparkplugs
removed. Do these easy/hard sections correspond to any TDC position?

Many thanks for your help, with this and with all of my other questions so far!!

Regards,
Mike J.

PS - what lubricant should I use on the distributor shaft when
installing? Looks like it had some sort of graphite paste on there?