I checked the timing on my '83 22R tonight. The distributor is fully retarded as much as it will move in that direction and the timing is still be too advanced. I can move it the other direction and it advances quite a bit. I'm guessing that the distributor might be off a tooth or two and may need to be removed and reinstalled in the correct place in order to retard it enough. I'll have to check it again to get the exact reading but it's not close to 0 or 5.

The truck drives fine but if I fail my emissions a second time I'm going to want to set the timing to factory specs.

Thoughts?

thats what it sounds like to me. Actually I just finished my engine rebuild yesterday and had that exact same problem

What I found is that when you have #1 set to TDC Compression Stroke, put the distributer in with the rotor right at the 12:00 Oclock position. It will rotate CCW to the #1 plug wire position as it goes in. Worked right off when I did it that way.

Good Luck!

mine is the same way. I moved it a tooth the other way and it is against the stops that way to get it advanced enough.
so I put it back the other way. completly against the stop retarded. still a little to advanced but not pinging.

I messed with it tonight and mine is the same way. One tooth and it's at the stop for retarded and the next tooth it's at the stop for advanced. The "advanced tooth" allows me to set it to 5 degrees with the vacuum attached. The "retarded tooth" allows me to set it to the farthest left mark. I assume the second mark is actually 12 degrees but I can't seem to find any documentation stating what degrees those two left marks are on the 22r. If the far left one is 12 degrees I guess I'm fine. However, if I pull the vacuum it's at 5 degrees which, the best I can tell, is the setting for the 22re and the 22r should be 0.