urgent: replacing distributor cap and leads

[justinbaldwin]

hi there,

tonight i did something very simple.

i replaced the spark plugs, the leads, the distributor cap and the rotor.

unfortunately, now the car won't start!!!

i admit i did the stupid thing of pulling off all the leads before marking them, i thought the cylinder numbers would be marked on the cap like on the mercedes i replaced earlier this week.

so, i have checked that the correct leads go to the correct cylinder, and i have seeen a good spark, and i can smell petrol in the exhaust pipe,

please could someone tell me the firing order for a 1983 911 SC. i got the firing order out of the haynes manual (101 jobs doesn't clarify it.....) however, it didn't actually cover the 3 litre engine, but since all the other engine configurations had the same firing order i have presumed mine does too.

the rotor arm turns anti-clockwise, so i presume the firing order goes anti clockwise too. my original cap had the number six on it which i used to start off the sequence, the new cap has the number three in the same place. i have tried both variations but to no avail.

i haven't touched anything else, and can't think why my otherwise totally reliable car won't start.

i'm in a bit of an emergency to get it started tomorrow morning.

any help would be very welcome.

regards

justin

[Gunter]

Firing order: 162435. Take the cap off, there is a notch (Cylinder 1 mark) on the edge of the distributor marking the # 1 position for the rotor to point to. Turn the engine until the rotor points to that notch. The corresponding ignition wire should go to the # 1 cylinder (first one on the left side) and then check the rest of the wires. All SC distributors run counter-clockwise. Cheers.

[smestas]

Justin,

What year is your SC? I know that some years the distibutor run clock wise and other years run counter clockwise. Just thought I'd mention that so you can be sure you have the wires in the right order.

I know my '78 runs counter clockwise.

[justinbaldwin]

thanks for the replies,

the firing order you mention is the one i am using. but i am slightly confused by the rest of your article gunter. if i take off a distributor cap and replace it in exactly the same place, and remove a rotor arm and replace it in exactly the same place, how has anything changed?

i have inspected the inside of both the old and new caps and can see several marks.

the first is the squared off piece that prevents the cap being placed in anything other than the correct position. the only other marks are three sets of double indentations, each pair placed equally at 120 degrees away from each other.

there is nothing i can see that looks like a positional reference exept for hte letter three on top of the cap, which as i mentioned i presume to mean that that is the receptacle for cylinder three lead.

???

can you be any more specific?

many thanks

justin

[justinbaldwin]

aaaahhhhhhhhh,

i think i've jsut worked out what you mean, when you said the distributor, i was thinking distributor cap, okay, now what you say makes sense,

i'm going to go now and have a play and see what happens.

many thanks

justin

[justinbaldwin]

well, i just had a play, i found the little notch, and matched up the number one cylinder lead with it and then follwed round in order anti-clockwise. unfortunately my battery was so low at this point that i won't know if i've been successful till the morning when i'll try again.

one thing i still dont understand is why i ahve to move the rotor arm, surely this is fixed within its own system. by that i mean that as soon as i turn the starting key, it spins around anyway, so why is it relevant where it starts?

clearly i am missing somehting here.

many thanks once again.

i'll pick yup any mor thoughts in the morning and see if i'm lucky then

goodnight and regards

justin

[john walker's workshop]

you don't really have to turn over the engine to move the rotor. that's just if you had the distributor out so it goes back in the right place. you just need to find the notch on the top edge of the distributor body which relates to #1. when the cap is put back on, the #1 wire goes to the cap position that sits over that notch. then the rest go c/clockwise from there in firing order.

[justinbaldwin]

hi guys,

well, thanks for all the help, it seems that i was connecting the right leads to the right place anyway. however in my first attempt i had donwd it wrong and then i think i flooded the engine.

in the morning, with a lot of turning over i managed to get the engine started.

the only problem now is that whereas the engine started on the very first movement of the engine turning over before, now it takes four or five seconds of turning over to catch.

i expected things to get better, not worse!

oh well, it's going again and until i do my big service i guess that's all that matters.

many thanks for getting me out of a sticky situation

regards

justin