well, i put a new distributor on my zc and now it wont start. the starter just cranks and cranks and every once and a while i'll get a nasty backfire. found out i was wrong on the firing order by a little, but i thought that even then it would start just run shitty. i havent had time to see if changing the firing order did anything because my car is at my friends house. but a friend of mine told me that i could have the distributor on backwards basically and that it needs to turn a full 180 deggrees.... he said it could go on TWO ways... but i thought it could only go on one way. so what do you guys think? can the dist. go on two ways? does it sound like i need to turn it a full 180 deggres?
any help is MUCH appreciated.

 

put your car to tdc-then align the dizzy-turn it upside down and look at the alignment marks.stick it on your head and you shold be good to go.

 

i'll give that a try for sure. thanks man.
anyone else have some help?

 

your friend is absolutely right. it CAN go on upside down (the gear that slides into the intake cam). it's only slighty offset to one side, and i always have trouble telling which is the correct way. i've done it a few times, and it does EXACTLY as you've described, backfires.

i'm 500% sure. i'd even put money on it

take the sucker off, turn the gear 180 deg, bolt it back on, and i guarentee it'll start right up.

 

Uhm, I didnt know you could put distributors on backwards since they are notiched a specific way to go on, and you would probably have to force it to even stay on?

hmmm

 

i tried this and it wouldnt go on... so i put it back on the way it orignally was and after about 5 minutes of messing with the firing order it started up. i tried forcing the dist. on after i spun it 180 degrees and it wouldnt go on all the way... anyway, it started right up after we fixed the firing order and messed with the timing.
thanks guys.


[Modified by glowing_rotors, 8:13 PM 3/30/2003]

 

please tell me what firing order you have it set at.. Im having the same problem as you on my DOHC ZC in my 91 Si. it sits there cranking and sounds like its backfiring. This is how I have it set.

 

put wire 1 where you have 4, 2 where you have 3, 3 where you have 2, and 4 where you have 1.

 

yeah thats cool you figured it out....I expierenced the same problem, and yes the dizzy can go on backwards, it appears to not be in all the way and you can easily tighten it in there. Although before i cranked it over I realized the problem and saved myself from any damage.

 

i used to always put the damn thing on upside down. it would slide right in and bolt right up for me. then backfire.