[BoiseShark]

There are marks on each one of the cams and you rotate the engine clockwise until both marks are lined up with the small engraved dotes on the pulleys themselves. They are both at the twelve oclock position. Then you take off the cap and make sure your rotor is pointing to number one. It should be the front-most plug on the driver side (If I remember correctly). The rest can be done with a timing light for fine tuning.

I hope this helps.

I have a 79 5 speed as well and made sure timing was dead on so I could rule that one out.

Is it only when shifting or will it do it on deceleration? If you simply rev it up in the parking lot, will you get backfire?

And is backfire coming from the engine compartment or the exhaust at the rear?