[El Jay]

I'm sure if it looked like you going to get into trouble Dad would have stopped you.

As for the distributor; pull the #1 spark plug and stick your finger in the empty spark plug hole. Then have somebody "bump" the starter until the compression "blows" your finger out of the spark plug hole. Don't worry, it's painless.
Manually roll the engine forward, or backward, until the timing mark on the harmonic balancer is pointed at "0 degrees".
Pull the cap off the distributer and mentally make a note in your head where the rotor is pointing in relationship to the intake manifold; and the relative location of the distributor housing.
Pull the distributor clamp and lift the distributor out.
Note: The distributor has helically cut gears (I think that's the term) and it will rotate backwards upon removal. Keep a mental note of this also, as to how far it rotates.
Take the new distributor, point the rotor to about where the old one pointed when it came out and drop it into the hole.
You may have to do this a couple of times to get the oil pump drive to line up.

Once you have the new distributor tight against the intake manifold, clamp it loosely.

Put on the new cap and install the wires and it should fire right up.

This whole thing sounds a bunch more complicated than it is, trust me.

Hopefully, others will chime in and maybe give you a couple of short cuts.

Oh yeah, don't forget to install a new distributor gasket under the distributor flange, unless you like oil leaks.