Firing order problem for my 4.9L inline 6
 

I'm new to mechanics and have my father in law teaching me how to work on my truck. I recently bought a 95 ford F150 4.9L inline 6. Since I've bought the truck it has felt like it was missing some while I was driving and when I first accelerated from a stop. My father in law told me a tune up would probably fix it right up. That's were all the problems started!! My father in law owns 5 Chevy trucks and hasn't worked on a ford before till mine. I guess since doing a tune up was like second nature to him he took all the spark plug wires off the distributer cap while changing out the old one for the new one and then got half way through putting the spark plug wires back on before he realized he was using his 6 cylinder Chevy firing order. So I looked up the firing order for my truck which is 1-5-3-6-2-4 for my inline 6. When we tried to crank it the truck would not start. We spent about 2 hours trying to mix the spark plug wires around trying to find the number 1 spark plug starting point and nothing seemed to worked. We have checked all the spark plugs and all are gapped correctly for my truck at .044. I went online trying to figure out what was going on when I came across the firing order for a regular 6 cylinder which is 1-4-2-5-3-6. So we decided to try that just to see the truck would start. Sure enough the truck started right up with that firing order but the truck is running horrible!! It's missing extremely bad. My question is why is the firing order for a regular 6 cylinder cranking my truck and the firing order that's supposed to be for my inline 6 not working? Also what can I do to fix this problem because as of now my truck is not drivable. My father in law just recently got hurt at work and is in the hospital so as of now I'm on my own and I'm open to any suggestions.
Thanks,
Darrell

Welcome to the forum!

If the wires were removed from the cap [and the distributor was not loosened], then you simply need to replace the wires in the correct order.

The spark plug nearest the radiator is #1 and the rear most one is #6. Remove the #1 spark plug and using a wrench on the bolt securing the harmonic balancer, rotate the engine [be sure the ignition is OFF]. Place your thumb over the open spark plug hole and when the pressure blows your thumb away, you know the #1 cylinder is on its compression stroke. Place something long and skinny [like a soda straw] in the spark plug hole, resting on top of the piston, and move the wrench back and forth [just a little bit] until the straw stops at the highest point. Look at the rotor in the distributor... it is now in position to fire the #1 spark plug. Set the distributor cap in place and notice which metal terminal is just above the metal tip of the rotor. Connect the #1 spark plug wire to that terminal. The rotation of the rotor is clockwise, so the next terminal to the right is for the #5 sparkplug. The next terminal to the right is for spark plug #3; then #6; then #2 followed by #4.

Try that. I hope it is clear.

Thank you!!
 

Thank you buddy!! Your directions were very clear and very affective. I did as you said and the truck cranked right up and ran great!! I really appreciate you taking the time to write those directions for me.

What if the distributor was pulled please? I even marked everything, she won't turn over now, just cranks?
Please & Thank You

Hello Smitts.

The instructions that 1986 posted were how to install a distributor from scratch (ie. pulled and not marked).

If you followed the above instructions and it does not fire, then you more than likely have your distributor installed 180° out. Meaning, you installed it on the exhaust stroke instead of the compression stroke.

Otherwise, you might have not connected/plugged in all of the ignition components.

An easy way to remember the firing order: '15 is too young. 36 is too old. 24 is just right.'

I still want to get myself this T-Shirt:

153624 Shirt | Redbubble

It says it's for a Toyota Supra. But that's fine, I used to have one of those too. :D

All things are relative! :)

hell, at my age, 36 is just about broke in right and 24 ain't worth talking to. Looking at, but not talking to.

Thanks man I'm gonna double check on the compression stroke with my thumb & hit tdc. The distributor was pulled, this one is brand new, cap & router, plugs & wires.
that's no doubt my issue, it's on the exhaust stroke not the compression! Thank You!

Hello i have an 84 4spd 300 straight 6 4.9 i put a performance distributor ready to go and did everything i was supose to it turns over beautiful but wont fire any ideas

If you did everything you were suppose to it would run right?
Go back over everything again to make sure it is right and have not missed something little.
Are you getting spark to the plugs?
If not do you have power to this new dist.? You need power both when cranking and when running so don't turn the key on and check as you may have power then but not cranking.
Dave ----