Thanks Tabe! I'm still curious though, whether this really is the
case, at least with my engine (2.0 aircooled). It doesn't seem as if
anything moves up and down - rather, it appears to move side to side.
This makes sense to me when I picture the horizontal layout of the
pistons/cylinders.

Are the sparkplug holes different on different engines, perhaps? Or am
I just being inordinately dense? :)

Thanks!
Mike.

On 5/28/05, tabe johnson <xtabe@yahoo.com> wrote:
> First of all, I would use something soft like a piece
> of wood dowelling, not something that can scratch the
> cylinders.
> 
> Anyway, get your pencil (or whatver), stick it in
> #1 spark plug hole, then crank the engine slowly until
> the pencil starts to move out of the hole.  When the
> pencil stops moving, that's close to TDC, either on the
> compression or exhaust strokes.