I think you're casting about a little, and might have missed some finer points. From your description, it sounds like your rotor is nowhere near where it needs to be, leaving your distributor about 90 degrees out of time one way or the other, which will definitely make for a backfire.
1) #1 (the front cylinder) needs to be at TDC on the COMPRESSION stroke. With the ignition OFF, use your hand crank bring the motor around until you feel it forcing air out of the plug hole on #1 and then use the fan as a handle and your wire to bring it to TDC.
2) With the motor resting at that point, make a crayon or other mark on your distributor body about even with the cap on the tower connected to your #1 plug wire. Pull your distributor cap, loosen the base and turn the distributor until your rotor is 10 or 15 degrees counterclockwise before the mark you just made. Replace the cap. From there you can use either a) the coil wire or b) #1 plug wire, or c) your #1 plug to finish the static timing.
a) To use the coil wire, hook the end that would normally go into the center tower of the distributor cap under one of the clips holding the cap down so that there is a slight air gap between the terminal on the wire and a good ground. With the ignition ON, turn the distributor body COUNTERclockwise, moving the tower for the #1 plug closer to where the rotor is resting inside, until you get a spark. Remove the cap and you should see the rotor pointing pretty nearly directly at your crayon mark.
b) With the coil wire connected between the coil and cap, take the PLUG end of the #1 wire and clip it to the distributor body as described above. With the ignition ON, turn as described until you get a spark and stop.
c) as in b except that you'll leave the plug on the end of the wire and rest the plug on a ground (edge of the plug hole often works) so that it will spark when the points open.
Go at it any one of these three ways and your static timing should be good. Verify that your rotor is pointing to #1, double check the order of your plug wires, and give it a go.
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