So,I just pulled off the gear cover and all but one cam fell out with the cover and the one that stayed in spun a little.My manual shows a pic with all the marks on the cams lined up,but says nothing about whether the front or back piston needs to be at TDC.[:@]

 

volcanoMFR.....
First a question.
Did you remove the piniongear on the crank shaft? This is the small gear that has the spiral gear behind it. The spiral gear meshes with the breather tube (oil pump).
If you removed the pinion, then the breather must be retimed, and you position the hash mark on the left flywheel dead center in the hole on the crankcase left side to put the engine flywheel in the proper place to do this.

Now, if the pinion was not removed, proceed like this:

Where the pistons are at makes no difference when you replace the timing gears/cams.

Oil everything up fully.

Install both cam gear plates with the bevels facing outward (towards the cams)

Install the cam shims in the same order as they came out. If you have mixed these up you will have to check and redo the cam end play spacing.

Install the cams so that all of the marks on the 4 camgears and the piniongear line up.

That is it. Finish the reassembly by installing the idler gear with generator, timing cover etc.........pg