So I put on a new cap and rotor on my 89 formula 5.7 tpi and when I go to hit the key it makes a loud clicking noise and won't turn over, I've replace the coil and the sensor inter the cap, before I took it off it would run ruff but it ran so I have no idea what I did. The fireing order is correct I've checked it 6 times, if you disconnect the wire from the coil it will turn over fine just no spark. Any ideas?

 

The engine won't crank over ?

 

It will turn over but after a bit it like seizes up and riverses

 

your firing order is off. could be a pole off on the dist. or the rotor isnt on right. you're going to have to find tdc on no.1 compression stroke. and go from there. might as well re-time the motor. dont forget to unhook the est. and check that the balancer hasnt rotted and moved your timing mark.

did i miss anything guys?

 

How do I make sure I have it all right I know the order is1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2 clockwise rotation, the first goes where? I have it t the bottom right if the distributor cap and jut across from the furthest right and back screw for the distributor cap cover on the back of the intake manifold it the firing order is right, how do I know if my cap is on right?

 

Wow. Holy Run-on Batman.

Cap can only go on one way-as long as it's firmly seated you're OK. It's the plug wires that may be off.

 

yah I realize that hahaha I thought I was going crazy but it was late and id been at the car all day, anyway it turns out that the plate was broken and allowed the cap to shift out of position. the first 6 wires when connected would fire but when i connected 7 and 2 it would miss again. so now I need to drop a new distributor in it.

 

I've had good luck with the reman dists from AZ or one of the other chains. If you have time you can price one from Rock Auto.

 

You will typically see diagrams that look like the following.

(FIREWALL)
__6___5
3_______7
4_______2
__8___1
(ENGINE)

When I changed my cap and rotor, I went to put it back together and it wouldn't start. After checking every wire to make sure things were right, it finally worked by moving every plug wire over by one spot on the cap. So my #1 spark plug wire is where the 2 is on the diagram.

Put it another way. The #1 spark plug wire is next to the screw that holds the distributor cap on.

 

so update it was the distributor ive got the new one in and its running much bet but I still need to fine-tune the timing and was wondering if anybody knew the timing for the 89 5.7 350 tpi

 

6* BTDC, with the EST/BYPASS connector open and the engine warmed up.

RBob.

 

thank you hopefully I can get out there and get it down pat

 

Thanks, this saved my a** this morning. Last night changed cap and rotor and could not get it to start. Knew everything else was good. Saw this posting and first thing this morning changed the wires one post over. Fired right up without hesitation. Hopes this helps someone else as well.