The Great Atomic 4 Debacle of Aught Six continues. I take noted mechanical expert, Bob, down to the boat yesterday afternoon. We are armed with everything necessary to repair the iginition system including the kit to convert to Electronic Ignition. We even have vague ideas that we're going pull out the main jet and clean that little beast.
So, we go to it, testing the engine at each step to see what fixes it. Except, nothing does. Putt putt POP putt putt Poop every time. Except when it goes POOFTP. It does that sometimes.
So, like all mechanics do when a decision has to be made, we stare at the engine. And talk. I'm over on Port, Bob on Starboard. I read on the engine, "firing order 1243". What the hell does that mean? Bob glares at me, venom spurting from his nostrils, and in a calm voice asks, "since the last time the engine ran, did you change the order of the spark plug wires?" Me, "nope, I've even memorized where they came off the engine every time I've messed with the distributor cap. it's the same, really" So we stare at the engine again. Me: "wait, one time I had to pull the distributor cap to check for moisture, but it ran fine after that" Bob, "in neutral or in gear". UH OH. I don't know if I'd ever put it in gear since then until the time it sputtered out when V and I went out.
So, it turns out that the order of the spark plug wires ISN'T the shortest one goes to the closest connection on the distributor. Who would have known?
And so ends The Great Atomic 4 Debacle of Aught Six.
3 comments:
Sounds like whoever installed the previous set of wires made a mistake. It doesn't make sense to have the shortest wire not go to the cylinder nearest the distributor cap, and on most cars I've worked on, that is how it is setup.
Indeed! As drift said! That would be most logical
thanks for having my back but i can't really blame anybody on this but myself. Here's the chronology:
1. Buy boat
2. Engine works
3. engine won't start one rainy day
4. I open up distributor cap to check for moisture
5. engine starts but won't run in gear
Hmmm, sounds like I mixed up the wires.
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