Hi. I was wondering if anyone could give some advice. I changed the plugs and wires, replaced the cover gasket, ignition coil, and made sure it is in time. But it will not fire. the mechanic who is working on it made sure the distributor is adjusted and set. He also made sure i'm getting plenty of fuel to the plugs. so we are out of ideas. could anyone please give me someother options to check? It hasn't been hooked to a computer yet but that is all we havn't tried.

it was running when i brought it to the mechanic (his house not the shop). it would stall at lights if i didn't keep the rpms above 500, it didnt happen at every stop but most of them.

any help would greatly be appreciated.

xav8terx

 

well dam man how low did it idle??? I mean, I may be wrong, but I thought most cars idled ideally around 700-1000rpm? I mean....below 500 is pretty freakin low.

 

it normally idled around 500-1000, but if i dropped below that it would usually stall.

 

you may wanna double check to make sure the #1 piston is at TDC and that the rotor is also on Cly plug #1. Also make sure all ur connections are tight. If the car is old( of course it is) get some Electrical plug cleaner for advance or and auto store and spray each plug thats in ur ignition system ( coil and dizzy plugs etc) and try again. also make sure ur battery and altenator are charging.

ps

it would also be cool to get some di-electric grease to put on the plug terminals to prevent corrosion

 

thanks for the assist. i'll try those options. do ngk plugs need gapped. sounds like a stupid question, but my taurus' plugs don't need gapped (they come pregapped). i didn't think to ask the mechanic if he did that or not.

 

Well even before the gap portion, does the car have spark at the wires?

 

no thats very important. if the gapping is off, i mean way off, u will not get any spark at all, but i doubt that every plug is that f-ed up beacause if u had spark even 2 or 3 of them could ignite it would just sound like a lawn mower on crack. Most plugs now come pregapped. U can change the gap ur self but if ur motor is stock its recommended to go with the FSM gap specs.

 

is there some sort of sensor that might be preventing the motor from firing? i'm sure it has to be something simple, but it just frustrating because it ran before we put the new parts on.

the mechanic that is helping me, had to rotate the distributor 180. he said when he brought it to tdc, the rotor was on #3 (i wasn't there when he did this). when he gets it back to my house i'm gonna make sure the timing is correct. i'm not confident that he has the firing order correct. but im running out of ideas.

 

that means that your car is not in time. U have have the rotor on plug number 1 and the cyl number one has to be at tdc

 

That would have to be a pretty big gap in order for the spark not to jump it. If he's not getting spark from even the wires, then the plugs are irrelavant.

Still hasn't answered the question if it has spark to the wires. Can't just say the car won't fire. There are so many variables. It's like asking "how big is a rock?"

 

i do have spark at the plugs, and we installed a new coil. so that should eliminate that problem.

 

ditto. had the same prob. drove me nuts for days. check for fuel leaking into your crank case or if it backs fires through the intake. also funny smells from the exhaust might give a clue, even puffy white smoke

 

yea man, when i took my lower timing chani guide off, i had it set to tdc, but when i put the dizzy down, the rotor rotated. So when i put the dizzy back in, it sounded like a John Deer tractor. I took me about 4 trys to get it back to TDC in the Dark lol.

Ps check all of ur grounds. especially the ground from the injectors

 

the camshaft position sensor is in the distributor, have that checked.

 

thanks for all the help with this. it was towed to my house last nite and i checked the plugs. they are brand new, and they already look like the ones i replaced. they are covered in fuel, and they have oil on them (not an excessive amount, but still visible). plug 1 & 3 were a little off gap. the firing order is correct (1-3-4-2). i didnt have much time to do anything else, i didnt even try to see if the gap issue was the problem. i'll try to fire it tonight. i'll also check all the connections.


as far as the position sensor goes, can i check that myself or do i need a shop to do that?

again, thanks for the help!