Rusty Driver
Posts: 195
Joined: Mon Sep 04, 2017 6:22 pm
233CI-No1 position on cap?
I have the timing marks lined up at the crank pulley and engine pointer. Pulled No1 spark plug and inserted my compression tester. Turned the engine over by hand in order to line up the timing marks and watched the compression gauge needle. It never moved and I went around several full revolutions - so maybe too low a compression to show up on the gauge, hand cranking it is too slow, or the 30 year old gauge just ain't working no more?
In any case, have the timing marks lined up, but don't know if I'm on the compression or exhaust stroke. Most engine tune-up specs have a spark plug wiring diagram showing the cylinder number and the position of spark plug wires in the distributor cap. My service manual does not have any such diagram. As it stands now, my rotor appears to be lined up with the cap electrode at about the 4 o'clock position. As I recall, the old cap/wires had the No1 cylinder wire positioned at about the 2 o'clock position - but this may have been wrong based on the former owners tip that the wires might be wrong.
I know I can figure this out by seeing if the engine runs in one position based on my timing marks, and if not, rotate the engine around to bring the piston back up to TDC and reposition my wires on the distributor cap - trial and error method. Knowing where the No1 wire should be positioned on the distributor cap would just save me a little time.
Not ready to fire it up yet as I still have additional work to complete on the truck's electrical system to get it to the point where I can attempt to fire it up. So any suggestions as to where on the distributor cap No1 wire should be positioned?