Camshaft

How could one do this? How could it be backward?

On some cars it will crank until your piston hit's a valve ... I suspect what he means is he has the belt on the wrong stroke ... like he may have it on the intake stroke when it should be on exhaust.

Not on this motor and it has a timing chain there Tom.

Non interference engine.

bring up #1 piston to TDC and re stab the dist 180 around again

That would be on the compression stroke to bring #1 up to TDC. Then check where the rotor is pointing, it should be pointing at #1 spark plug tower.

OT ~The original Honda 4 cylinder (Goldwing) bike got away with only 2 coils by firing 2 cylinders at a time .. reasoning being the one not wanting a spark was on the exhaust stroke and that spark did nothing ... probably others have done it for years but something is new only if you never heard it before

Thanks Guys I found the problem and am trying to get it back together. Backwards wasn't I meant it was 180 out of time. Have pulled distributor and timing chain am in the process of repairing

Make sure an line the timing marks on the gears dot to dot. Have the spark plugs out for ease to move the crankshaft. Once the timing marks are set then it is to check to make sure your on the compression stroke for when you go to put the distributor back in, so the rotor points to #1 spark plug tower on the distributor cap.