I was changing the cap wires and rotor tonight on my 84 z-28 and went to put the wires back on the new cap using the diagram in the haynes manual. Now the car won't start and I am sure that the wires are on wrong. The #1 terminal is not marked on either cap. Which terminal on the cap is #1? Also the distrubitor was loose and I need to tighten it up and set the timing. What is the stock timing on an 84 z-28? The haynes book says to look under the hood, but my label is gone. I need to drive this car tomorrow so any help you can give me would be appreciated.

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1990 5.0 AOD lx
best on old combo
13.65 at 104.57
347 stroker coming
1984 camaro z-28 stock and slow
1982 mazda rx-7, 350 swap in the works.
superstangs messageboard

 

The Haynes manual should have a diagram in it that illustrates where the #1 terminal on the cap is, on mine it's on the driver's side front of the cap. If you replace the wires one at a time you shouldn't have to worry about whether you got them on right or not. If the timing is off far enough the car will barely start or not start at all, you need to set it to about 6* BTDC. Hope this helps.

 

I hope you didn't fudge up the firing order or cylinder numering. Just an observation that you also work on a mustang. You are aware that SBC cylinders are numbered 1357 from front to back on the driver's side, and 2468 on the pass. side. The firing order is 18436572.
I don't remember for sure, but #1 will be either the first or second terminal on the cap going clockwise from the coil connector bulkhead.
sorry if i was belittling you by going over the firing order stuff, but better safe than sorry (not that i'd ever wired up a friends mustang using a ford firing order with chevy numbering..lol)
...ed

 

Best thing to do at this point is to pull out the #1 spark plug and find out (with a compression tester....NOT A SCREWDRIVER!!!) when the #1 piston is at top dead center of the compression stroke. When you see the compression building stop bumping the starter and manually turn the crank until the pointer for 0 deg. is lined up with the mark in the harmonic balancer.

NOTE: If you turn the crank manually to line up the timing marker, without using a compression tester to see that you are actually on the compression stroke, you risk the posibility of lining up the timing marker to top dead center of the exhaust stroke (aka. 180 degrees off).

Now that you know for certain that you are at top dead center, pull off the distributer cap and see which terminal on the cap the rotor is pointing to. This will be where your #1 wire should go. Then you can proceed to install the remaining wires.

ALSO NOTE: #1 can be anywhere on the cap. From the factory (and any good mechanic who might have pulled the distributer) it is in the same location. But the fact is if someone just put the distributer in (while the #1 piston was at top dead center) without caring whether or not it pointed in the conventional location, than it can be anywhere on the cap.

[This message has been edited by TunedPort350 (edited February 27, 2001).]