Valve check question TDC?

I'm doing my first valve ck on a 2004 TE 250(first for me, bike was bought used). I have a manual, but the picture where it shows how to find TDC is so grainy, I can't see what markings they are talking about. I watched Coffee's video, but when I line up the slot in the head with the two divots on the ring, my exhaust valves are still tight. They are looser when I am still about 20 degrees prior to lining up the divots with the line. Are those the markings they are referring to in my manual? I thought TDC would be the spot where the clearance would be the highest? Any help would be appreciated. BTW, if you can't tell, I've been on 2 strokes for a long time........

I found these two links from ADV quite helpful

TDCC is where you find it...
How to inspect the valves on a KTM LC4 In three easy steps.

Watching the valve actuation and using a plastic soda straw through the spark plug hole work well for me.

I think you'll see two round punch marks to indicate when the bike is at TDC. Take a look and post back.

NC

Thanks for the info everyone. I found TDC and checked the valves. Both were in spec. Here's where I got confused(I have an EFM, so I can't use the rear wheel to move the crank), when I would crank the kick start and get past the intake valve closing, the engine would go past TDC, but there was a set of 2 divots on the timing chain gear that were visible, so I was trying to line those up with the slot. The correct divot on the gear was already hidden in this position and I could not go backwards since I was using the kickstart. I stopped by Uptite to pick up some oil today and talked to George and he told me to use the rod method in the cylinder and to use the flywheel(I could now go backwards) to position the rod at TDC. I did that and wala, the single divot now appeared and was lined up perfectly! I checked both camshaft gears and the dots were lined up with the top of the head. The lobes were both facing inwards as George said they would be. Not sure why it's 2 dots on the video, but mine only had one to line up. Also, I could see where the previous owner scribed an arrow that faced up on the aluminum piece on the end of the intake cam to mark TDC. Bummer part is that I will have to drain the oil to ck the valves, but I'll just schedule the valve cks for when I do an oil change.

Now I am concerned. My manual indicated the two markings, not the single. Then again, the valves pop open and closed as opposed to slowly opening and closing so part of me thinks this is pretty hard to do wrong. When I rock the bike fore and aft to get the marks lined up, I can see when the valves are and are not moving. I have had four of these types of Huskies since 2004 and checked the valves on all of them the same way and never had an issue.

NC

You're fine, I'm sure my bike is somehow the odd ball one. Kind of hard to see here, but this is a pic of the cams with the notch lined up with the two dots. As you can see, the cams are definitely not at TDC. The arrow you see etched on the intake cam is TDC when it is pointing up.