Well I was replacing my cap and rotor on my 1991 3.1 V6 Camaro. I noticed the pickup coil was rusted (after checking the boards I see that a) it wasn't rust and b) not necessary to clean). So I scraped it off with a stiff wire brush. AFter putting the rotor and cap back on the car wouldn't start.

After reading the boards I figured I messed up my pickup coil and replaced it. I made sure when pulling the distributor to mark the location of the rotor and housing in relation to a mark on the firewall. Put it all back, tried to start the car, cranked it for a couple of seconds and I think I got one cylinder to fire before it died. Pulled the distributor and made sure my marks were dead on. This time I only got a few knocks from the engine.

My plan tomorrow is to bring #1 to TDC and align the rotor so that it is definately pointing at #1 terminal.

My first question is: is there anything else that I could have screwed up besides the timing?

Another important note/question: when I removed the distributor gear, there was a washer on top of it and another 3 tooth gear/washer of some sort. I didn't mark the position of that 3 tooth gear. Was it's position something that I should have marked?

Thanks for any help. I'm just starting this whole DIY car repair. Until now my biggest job was a R-134a retrofit.

 

Sounds like the timing is jsut off. Install the distributer so that all six 'points' on the reluctor on the pickup are lined up (rotor also pointing to the #1 terminal). This will be TDC for the distributer. Rotate the distributer counter-clockwise so that the rotor is about 15 degrees or so ahead of the #1 terminal in the cap. This will give some advance so you can get the motor up and running. From there set the base timing as indicated for your car.