993 ignition rotor issue/no start

[dougs951s]

hi guys, I'm working on my friends' 993 and I need some help. We took it apart to replace the ignitions caps and rotors because it started running rough, and finally it failed to start due to a no-spark issue. we replace the parts and now it has spark (we test at both coils, and at the spark plug wires) and fuel but it wont start. In fact its not really doing anything, when we try to start it for the first time in the morning it will spit and fire a few times, but it wont start and its sounding like the firing order is off. After a few start attempts it wont do anything at all, not even a little puff. we checked and tripled checked the firing order and we are both completely positive the firing order is correct. His distributor belt is new and we confirmed it has not broken. My inititial thoughts were we had just fouled the plugs by trying to start it so many times, but after cleaning the upper plugs it didnt improve at all. My thoughts now are that something is off with the rotors. I know they're supposed to just press onto the shaft, with the slot in the shaft lined up with the slot in the rotor. Thing is...I dont think they're installed correctly, because I can easily grab both rotors and spin them easily on the shafts. I know that grabbing the rotor and trying to turn it is a test for the distributor belt, which implies to me they are not meant to spin freely on the shafts. The shafts themselves do not spin, which confirms the belt is not broken but I'm almost certain I have not installed the rotors correctly. Do I need to tap on them firmly to seat them and lock them to the shaft? How am I supposed to properly install the rotors so they lock in place and do not freely rotate on the distributor shafts? They do sort of "catch" when the notch in the rotor lines up with the notch on the shaft, but light finger pressure with one finger is all that it takes to easily rotate them. That light friction from the notch can't possibly be enough to keep the rotor timed correctly once its spinning at 3k+ rpm. That can't possibly be right, can it? Any help is greatly appreciated!

[crg]

take the rotor out and look up inside where it fits on the shaft, what does the little tap look like? if its a little beat up then you're probably not fully seating the rotor..push it down like you mean it, you might hear it click when it bottoms out

i had this same issue a few years ago, until i put some a*s behind seating that primary rotor

[mreid]

If the rotors don't seat, you will have the problem you are describing.

[jhg41977]

If you removed the distributor, check your timing. I goofed mine up when I installed it. Sounded like it was trying to start but wouldn't.

[TMc993]

Turned out it was the DME relay....