On my 92 with #1 cylinder on TDC and the mark on the crank pulley lined up on "0" on the timing cover. I believe turn the oil pump to the 11 o'clock position and the trailing edge of the window of the dist. will line up with your #1 mark on the dist. It is weird because it is not lined up exactly on #1. its like a tooth past. But this is how I stabbed my distributor in and have had no problems.

 

exactly

 

Thanks for the help and the advise! Got it running! Had two issues 1. the distributor was 180 off 2. I got a different distributor from the junkyard because the orginal one out of the engine has excessive shaft play, well the one from the junkyard was not operating properly. I put in the orginal one, still with excessive shaft play, cranked it about 3 seconds and it started! So tomorrow I will run the break in and I gotta put insurance back on it button it up and then one more xj back on the road!

 

kool