Posted by Marty [108.162.245.11] on Friday, April 08, 2022 at 20:54:21 :
In Reply to: Re: check plug wires/firing order. nm posted by Lee [162.158.106.219] on Friday, April 08, 2022 at 19:51:30 :
Whenever I’m dealing with a situation like this & don’t know if a distributor was installed correctly, I have a fail proof method for checking firing order. Pull #1 spark plug. Jump the starter while holding your thumb firmly over the plug hole. Just bump the starter. You’ll know immediately when it’s on the compression stroke. As soon as you feel your thumb being pushed off the whole…watch the marks on your crank pulley. Once they’re lined up with zero on your timing cover pointer, pull your distributor cap & regardless of where it’s pointing…that’s #1 plug wire location. So what I do is if it’s not pointing where you want it, it can easily be corrected by pulling the distributor & also your oil pump & fix it in like 10 minutes but there’s really no need for it…it won’t run any better. Just make sure it’s the correct firing order & it will run.
So if you didn’t have your oil pump out then the only thing you could have done wrong if everything else is correct…the distributor could be in 180 degrees wrong.
That’s where I’d start…find top dead centre & check where the rotor is pointing. If it’s not at your number 1 ignition wire…just move the wires on the cap.
My rule of thumb…try not to make too many radical changes at once otherwise you have no idea if it’s the distributor, timing chain or carb for that matter. I think it’s firing order if your timing chain is iron the right teeth.
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