On locking your distributor. Pull the cap. Take the dist. out of your engine. Take the spring and weights off the dist..Take the dist. gear off. Loosen the nut under the weights. Then lift center part of the dist. and turn it 180 deg. Put it back in and tighten the nut again. You should be able to see that the plate where the rotor goes no longer has play. Reinstall the gear and put the dist. back in and you've locked your advance. Unless you've got a ton of compression you shouldn't have to run a timing retard at start up. I'm sure they work great but my engine starts great without one, with the timing set at 38 deg.