87 Dodge Raider, plugs, wires & dist. cap?s

[PineRidge]

I kind of need help in a hurry, as dh and I messed up while changing the wires, plugs and distributor cap on his Raider. This is his only way to work, and it's 9:30 pm

I am not sure what happened, but here's what we did....

First removed the plug wires, in order, and followed them to the cap. They went 1,2,3,4 counter clockwise (I'm 99.99% sure) then we replaced the plugs. Dh says the guy at the auto store said "they do not need the gap adjusted" of course in the box label it says adjust. Put the new plugs in, ran the wires to the new
distributor cap, in the order they came off. We also replaced the "rotor" inside the cap, I'm not sure what it is called, on the box it just says "rotor".

We started the engine and it was knocking badly. We double and triple checked everything. We put the old plugs back in, thinking the gap was off too much on the new ones (we do not have the owners manual to know what they should be) Same problem, knocking. Then we started switching the order of the wires, every combination, keeping wire "1" in place since it's labled. Sometimes the engine would knock, sometimes stall. We tried replacing all the old parts (but not old wires) and combinations thereof.

Do you all have any ideas? I'm going to try and search on the web for the correct wire placement. Oh, the reason we did this is because dh was asking his mechanic friends at work (repair shop) about gas usage, and lack of power, and they told him to try this first before he spent money on anything else. Guess they didn't know he wasn't exactly a mechanic, lol.

Thanks.

[skruzich]

Originally Posted by PineRidge

I kind of need help in a hurry, as dh and I messed up while changing the wires, plugs and distributor cap on his Raider. This is his only way to work, and it's 9:30 pm

I am not sure what happened, but here's what we did....

First removed the plug wires, in order, and followed them to the cap. They went 1,2,3,4 counter clockwise (I'm 99.99% sure) then we replaced the plugs. Dh says the guy at the auto store said "they do not need the gap adjusted" of course in the box label it says adjust. Put the new plugs in, ran the wires to the new
distributor cap, in the order they came off. We also replaced the "rotor" inside the cap, I'm not sure what it is called, on the box it just says "rotor".

We started the engine and it was knocking badly. We double and triple checked everything. We put the old plugs back in, thinking the gap was off too much on the new ones (we do not have the owners manual to know what they should be) Same problem, knocking. Then we started switching the order of the wires, every combination, keeping wire "1" in place since it's labled. Sometimes the engine would knock, sometimes stall. We tried replacing all the old parts (but not old wires) and combinations thereof.

Do you all have any ideas? I'm going to try and search on the web for the correct wire placement. Oh, the reason we did this is because dh was asking his mechanic friends at work (repair shop) about gas usage, and lack of power, and they told him to try this first before he spent money on anything else. Guess they didn't know he wasn't exactly a mechanic, lol.

Thanks.

First of all, which raider, dodge or mitsubishi.
Second what year is it
third what size motor is it

Ok
Now firing order is always stamped on the intake manifold. Look for a set of numbers. IF its a 4 cylendar it will have 4 numbfierrrs, if its 6 cyl it will have 6 numbers. That is the firing order

Next thing you must do is find number 1 cylindar. take the plug out put your thumb in the hole and turn the engine over til it blows your them out of the hole and stop. That should be top dead center of the number one cylindar.

Next thing remove dist cap and see the position of the rotor. On one end of the roter you will see a metal piece that makes contact with the leads on the inside of the dist cap. Note the position of that rotor. Replace your rotor if you haven't already done so and make a note of which hole looks like it aligns up with the metal on the rotor. Once you mark where that metal part is, turn it over a bit and see what direction the rotor turnes. find out which way it turns counter clockwise or clockwise, then replace the distributor cap. Note where you saw the metal on the rotor before you turned it over again and pick the hole on the cap that would put it directly over that rotor position. That should be number 1 spark plug. Start from there. route that wire to number 1 spark plug. the next thing you need to know is what order the spark plugs are in going along the heads. Standing in front of your vehicle, number one usually is on your right and at the front of the engine. Now depending on your vehicle number two could jump across to the other side of the engine toward the front and alternate across the engine as you go back. Some engines start at the right front and go straight back then goes back to the front left and straight back. You have to determine which way it goes.

Once you have that determined, you can use the firing order numbers and start at number 1 on the distributor cap, then the next number in the firing order is the spark plug wire you need to plug in next to number one in the direction you picked clockwise or counter clockwise.
Then you pick the next number in the firing order and on until you have all wires pluged in.

Hope that helps some. It would help if you bought a haynes manual at the autoparts store

[skruzich]

Hey found something



Ok heres what you do. look at the diagram to find numer 1 spark plug on the distributor cap.

Once you have number 1, go clockwise and plug number 3 spark plug wire in next, then number 4 plug wire and then number 2 plug wire.
If its a six cylindar motor this won't work.