First off, it's not my fault, second I need to get this bronco II running. A family friend brought her car over to do plugs, wire, cap and all on her 88, she likes being a grease monkey so I just watched mostly, she did the wires first one by one and marking them, then she did the plugs, then she marked the numbers on the new cap... and proceded to twisting the old one into a better position to get the nut driver on it.... She had her clutch replaced a year ago and noticed a little rough driving for a few days but it straightened out, the best I can figure is that the shop knocked the clamp lose and it's been working due to the memory of the wires holding it in place.
So all said and done we go through with everything and set it to our best guest and the thing doesn't want to start, so I yell at her to stop turning it over, but she's standing next to me with the key. 2 minutes of diesleing later with battery leads off and smoking, I have the #2 plug cracked, an electrical burn across my hand and a renewed belief in new cars and warranties.
What damage could possibly be done? What are my next steps to getting the first problems fixed? I'm pretty sure we didn't lift the distributor out at all but how do you fix that? And what the correct timing setting for this engine 10 or 8.
first of all, recheck your firing order, 1-4-2-5-3-6 clockwise and the timming is 10 degrees btdc. for 2.9. youd have to remove bolt and clamp to lift distributor, check to see if its loose , did the distributor turn?
the 88 2.9 should be EFI, at least my 87 is. If it was dieseling for 2 minutes after you turned the key off, something is seriously wrong.
The only other thing that comes to mind is a short out somewhere, causing the ignition to stay on, if I take the battery cables off my on my ranger, while shes running, it will stay running.
As mentioned, make sure the plug wires are in the correct positions on the cap. Below is a diagram of the 2.9 layout.
Is the cap secure on the distributor now? Not able to move around anymore, I hope...? The cap is held onto the distributor with screws, not clamps so it would be pretty hard to accidently knock them loose, I'd check to see that the distributor itself is secure. The diagram below shows pretty closely where you want the distributor set, and you can also aim the TFI module so that it's parallel to the firewall.
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