i started to change the wires and some how got all confused and now got it all mixed up, i know the fireing order is 18436572 but dont know where one is on the distrubuter cap damit. any help is apreciated thanks

 

i use the first terminal after were the battery,tach and ignition module plugs in
if that doesnt work use the second terminal ive read thats were its supposed to be

 

i tried that and still does not work, there's was smoke coming out of the carburator and it seem like if the battery was dead like a slow crank, but the battery is good.



rear of engine

8 7
6 5
4 3
2 1

front of engine



i started at clockwise from the tach/battery connector at #1,8,4,3,6,5,7,2

is there something i'm doing wrong truck worked good before?

 

1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2 - Clockwise

 

thats what i got but wont work?

 

what do you mean it won't work??? can't start the car? do you have spark? its an HEI? make sure the tach and power wires are in the right spot, is the timing set right?

 

i'll check the wire's tommorrow even though i didnt mess with them all though i did see a conector that wasn't connected to anything and i asked the owner of the truck and he told me that wire has always been disconected. it seem almost like if there was no power going to the distributer because it will slowely crank but then dies and smokes comes out of the carburator.

 

well if the distributor was out, or moved the timing could be out of wack, that could mess it up. get a small voltage meter and check the wires....

its almost always the most simple explaination.

 

i'll try that, thanks man for the advice

 

You check for spark on a couple of wires right? Maybe you didn't push the wires down far enough on the dist cap.

Just to double check when standing in front of your grill and looking straight down from the top of your distributor the #1 plug terminal is at about the five O'clock position just after the tack/batter hook up terminals going clock wise.

You have probably checked the plug wire hook up from the correct terminal on the distributor to the right plug a million times by now right?

Is all you did was rip out the old wires and start putting new wires on??? You didn't change the cap and rotor too did you??

If it were me and I was getting stumped I would check to see that when your #1 piston is at top dead center on a compression stroke that my rotor was pointing to the #1 plug terminal on the cap.

How old is the motor (I know 1978) but engine wise maybe someone did a cam job and didn't line up the gears right or the timing chain jumped a notch or something and the #1 terminal is off. Even if it were off if you found the right terminal for the #1 plug wire and follow the firing order it still would run fine.

 

forget about where the #1 terminal is "supposed to be" it doesnt matter which terminal you use for the #1 plug as long as its phased properly with the rotor.

easy way to do this

pull drivers side valve cover
rotate engine by hand till the timing mark is at 0 on the timign tab.
when you do this, watch the valves on the #1 cyl. make sure both valves are closed. if they arent, rotate the crank 1 full revolution and reposition the timing mark. (it may be hard to tell if they are open because they will be in overlap and only slightly opened, thats why you should watch as the motor is turned over)
pick the terminal on the distributor that is closest to where the rotor is at, and use that for #1.
reinstall plugwires, start engine and time it with a light.
mark the #1 terminal for future reference

hope this helps

 

You need only remove the spark plug from cylinder #1 to determine compression stroke. Put your finger over the hole and turn the motor over. When it pushes your finger away look at the timing mark on the harmonic balancer. It should be close to tdc mark. Bring that mark up to tdc and check the location of the rotor under the distributor cap. The rotor will be pointed to the #1 cylinder location on the cap. If you have not moved the distributor the timing will be the same as it was previously.

 

good point... I'm retarded