distributor trouble
 

Hello all as you can tell i have a issue i need some advice about. I have an 87 ranger xlt 4x4 2.9 engine and in process of removing heads. however to get to them i need to remove my distibutor and place engine in number one spot. well my problem is the cap is not marked number one nor am i finding it on the manifold so that being said how do you find which is number one plug?. I have a chilton's repair guide and unless i am blind and retarded i doesn't say in there, However my ex wife prolly thinks im both. i know the firing order to be 124536 i need to find that plug to finish job..please help anyone.

This should help:

https://www.autozone.com/images/cds/...3d800d39f9.jpg

And the firing order is 142536. If your distributor isn't in exactly this position, you can find #1 on the cap by tracing the wire back from the #1 cylinder...if you haven't already removed the wire. But you can still see which terminal on the cap is #1 relative to the hold-down screw (looks like a std. clip in this image.)

Problem is my distributor is not marked with a one....what do i do now?

That's the point of the diagram...the distributor isn't marked, and the cap doesn't have to be marked in order to find #1 on it. Look at the diagram and see where it shows #1 is on the cap; you can see that it's the first terminal counter-clockwise from the rearmost (closest to the firewall) distributor cap retaining screw, that's the little rectangle between the #1 and #4 terminals.

tigerdan.

is this the same diagram for a 1990 2.9??

becaus mine isnt situated like this.... i dont see how the truck would run tho if it was all messed up. the wires go to the same general spots but my screws in relation to the wires arent right....

Should be the same for all years of the 2.9. It's fairly common for someone to pull a distributor and put it back a few teeth off and just move the wires on the cap over one terminal or so. This is just the location that the manual says the wiresshould be in relative to the cap hold-down screws, and the screws relative to the engine etc.

ok, my screws arent nearly close to the same situation, and i can turn the whole unit, (cap and distributor) i dont think its supposed to move is it? would this mess up my ignition timing and cause the issues ive been having??


are the screws supposed to be situated like the diagram?

mine just looks totally out of whack compared to that, and i dont know if thats a major issue.

also one cap screw was loose, so i tightened it back up, that could have been letting in mooisture too causing problems....

ok so my wires look pretty close to the same in relation to where they ar eon the distributor, except the screws are like 90 degrees clockwise different than the diag. :(

tigerdan i appreciate all your help, im just trying to figure this out tonight so she can hit the road to work tomorrow