stupid question, but did you get the cam key back in before tightening the camgear to the cam? you shouldn't need to retard the timing on the cam gear unless you have it on a dyno and can see what the changes are doing. on a sohc it usually just shifts the power band and since the dist is at the other end of the cam effectively advances/retards the timing as well...so to be effective you need to reset the dist timing too.