Ok, i cleaned my imrcs on my 97 today. Everything went great until i went to hook the spark plug wires back on. I left them all clipped together and realized they were way wrong. Unfortinatly I didnt write down how they were previously. Keep in mind the car ran fine before. I hooked them up the way they are supposed to go and the car took a few seconds to fire up, spit and sputter for about 5 seconds and then died. Now it wont fire up again. The wires are ford racing wires and have the numbers printed on them. Where they clip on the coil pack someone hand wrote numbers on there. For instance, the wire that Ford printed 8 on has the number 3 hand written. First off, what could cause my firing order to be abnormal? It does have a steeda timing adjuster but I doubt that would change the firing order. Hopefully someone has some ideas here because I am not sure how to run these wires.
Firing order, Big Problem!
- Thread starter andrewrj
- Start date
here you go...
Mustang Firing Order and Spark Plug Location
Mustang Firing Order and Spark Plug Location
Thank you for that. Is there anyway I can rotate the wires by knowing the firing order now? Like I said, if I hook it up right it mis fires like crazy. wont even hardly run. When it was running fine previously they werent hooked up correctly.
You had a lot of stuff off to get to the IMRC's. How are you sure its the wires/firing order causing your problem?
The firing order wont change on our cars so if the wires are routed to the correct piston then you might have damaged something else...the wire should be numbered so just put the wires in their correct spot; check your spark plugs, vacuum lines, etc to make sure nothing came out of its place since I'm sure that the engine misfired if the firing order wasn't correct.
Not positive but I am sure that the wire routing was funky to begin with. The number 7 wire is the only one that was labeled correctly but it was in number 6's position on the coil pack. I do not know which plug it actually ran to. Like I said, it was running correctly how ever they had it wired before.
It only misfires when the wires are in there correct spot.
The firing order was correct before you took it apart but im sure that they didn't have the right numbered wires to the corresponding numbered piston (make sense?)
Sooo I take it that it doesn't misfire with the old wire routing??
I understand what you are saying. But the only other problem I would think i could have is a vacuum leak and when the car actually runs its definatly missing/studdering. It doesnt rev high. It almost seems as though the cams are off from the crank or some crazy thing like that.
It didnt misfire before, no. But I never wrote down the way they had it routed before I took them off. I could see me screwing up something taking the intake off but the only thing i see that would cause a misfire are the plug wires. And I know they had them routed funky which is why I am confused.
I put new o rings and pentil caps on the injectors today also. I guess tomorrow I will go get my scan tool and a fuel pressure gauge and see if that helps me out.
A smaller vac leak won't make the idle high but it will cause driveability symptoms similar to a lean condition, and will cause an idle stumble remarkably similar to a cam lope.. it will pretty much go away at WOT (no vacuum means no leak).
Best bet with the plug wires is individually chase every wire to the plug using the above firing order link as a reference. Ignore the numbers on the wires entirely.
Best bet with the plug wires is individually chase every wire to the plug using the above firing order link as a reference. Ignore the numbers on the wires entirely.
Not sure about the cobra packs, assuming they are the same as the gt's, they have 2 sets of numbers on the pack. This way it can be used on both sides of the engine. so double check that, and don't go by what someone has written on there. Go by a manual
BUY A BLOODY HAYNES MANUAL.
Seriously guys, its like $10 bucks.
Seriously guys, its like $10 bucks.
Here is a crude drawing of how my car's plug wires have been run for as long as I have owned this car, with no problems:
http://www.classictiger.com/mustang/UnderTheHood/96CobraPlugWires.jpg
http://www.classictiger.com/mustang/UnderTheHood/96CobraPlugWires.jpg
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One of those manuals is off on 4.6 firing orders.. think it's Chilton actually. Scared the piss out of me on the wife's GT once, put cams in it and went to fire it and it sounded like something was binding because the firing order was wrong LOL
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