Your timing is way off if you have to turn it that far to get it to run.

If your timing marks are screwed up, turn it as far as you can.
Leave the engine where it is, and pull the distributor out, move it back to where you have some adjustment and reinsert it.

Or, just move each wire over one terminal on the distributor.
Then you have some adjustment and you can turn the distributor back 60*

 

Would moving the wires over a plug now throw it out of time even more?

 

If you move them the wrong direction, it would.

 

Icing the wires forward one, or back one, didn't do anything. Back was absolutely nothing not even kicking the starter over, the forward was giving kickback.

 

The starter motor not engaging is a different problem that cannot be affected by spark plug wire orientation, something else is causing that problem.

 

What?
My starter works fine?

 

Then what are you talking about here:

 

Like the engine trying to start and pushing faster then the starter, but not starting.

 

Stop and think about it a little bit. Turn the dist all the way till it hits the obstruction and is trying to run. Stop the engine, pull the distributor cap off and look at the rotor. Put the cap back on and take it off till you figure out what wire the rotor is pointing to. If it's inbetween two wires, take a wrench and turn the engine by hand till the rotor points to the wire of your choice, just pick one. Mark that sparkplug wire with a piece of tape. The rotor HAS TO BE POINTING AT THAT WIRE WHEN YOU ARE DONE.

Now where would you like the distributor to be setting? Move it away from the obstruction and put it where you want it to give you lots of room for adjustment.

Now pull the cap off again. See where the rotor is? It's pointing in the same spot it was, because after you turned the engine with a wrench, you didn't touch the engine, you just move the distributor. But the rotor is pointing at a different wire.

Now what is it going to take to get the wire you marked back to the post where the rotor is pointed? Have a vision in your mind the wire you marked skipping around the dist cap and landing back to where the rotor is pointing. It may take one skip around, it may take two depending on how much you turned the dist.

Skip the marked plug wire around till it's back where the rotor is, and skip all the other wires the same so they are in the same order.

In the end, your rotor is pointed at the same marked wire, but the body of the dist has moved around to a more favorable position.

 

Someone mentioned moving the plug wires one space forward or back. The distributor is round. It is a multi switch in a way. As the rotor turns it transfers power from the coil intake lug out to the proper plug wire at the proper time. The distributor cap is sometimes marked with a 1 indicating where the number 1 plug goes. If you can't turn it far enough to get it in time, simply move the #1 mark to the next plug in over. I have had to do this before. It does not matter what lug the plug wires are on, as long as they are in time with the turning of the engine.
My question is WHY? Why would it run fine, then backfire and suddenly be that far out of time? Engines do not go very far out of time on their own unless something is wrong.
How many miles are on the engine? Maybe it is time for a new timing chain? If it ran before, now is so far out of time you can't bring it back, something caused it.
Unless you pulled the distributor and got it off a tooth or two throwing it out of time. If you have high miles would it be possible your timing chain is worn out and jumped?

 

Sorry, no timing chain on the inline 6 engine.
The cam is gear driven.

360*/6 = 60*
Enough room for you to set the distributor to where you CAN adjust it.
The cap doesn't know or care where each wire is.
It just fires them every 60* in turn.

I have to ask Dylan,
How can you have said in multiple threads that you have set and checked your ignition timing if you don't even know where your SPOUT is?
It is impossible to set (or even check) the static ignition timing without defeating the computer's advance by removing this jumper plug.
Evidently you don't have a manual, but is it possible for you to print these instructions from the web so you have some kind of guide?

 

Yes, yes it is...

 

I turned the tfi attached to the distributor to mess with my timing before.
My distributor had to of went out. The new one can get the engine to run now.

 

I learn something new everytime I come on here! Back in the early '90s I rebuilt a 300 6cyl in my 1983 pickup. I could have sworn it had a chain instead of gears! But I have been wrong many times before! Now that I am starting to get back into turning wrenches after almost 20 years I am finding a lot that I have forgotten!

 

DD, that's not to say the gears can't wear out.
I've never owned a Ford inline 6, but it is my understanding that the cam gear is plastic and they can get to where they skip.
This is one reason why I have asked multiple times to bring the engine to TDC #1 and check the rotor position.

Here's a pic I found on the web.