I changed the spark plug wire on my 77 280z and now the car would not start.

I first put the wire on wrong and then fixed it based on the diagram on my haynes manual.

The battery somehow got drain. I jumped it with my g35, have power and the car would not start. It crank, but nothing. Once I unhook the jumper cable from it, the car later loses juice. This time when I try to start it, I hard this big thump sound from the engine. I think see something slowly leaking from the intake, end up to be gas. Did the intake backfire? I heard this the other day when the car was running perfectly. I live in Minneasota and it was about 10 degrees today. Did the fact that I first plug the wire in the wrong order has to do with the drain battery? I'm new at all of this so thanks for the advice so far.

The plug wire order should be like this:

Plug 1 is at the front of the motor near the fan, plug 6 is at the windshield.

Your battery is probably weak/old and trying to start so many times with the cold most likely drained it.

If the voltage is 12.0V it is dead,if the voltage is 12.8V it is fully charged.

The car probably backfired because of wrong plug order. Check against the diagram above....however sometimes past owners mess up the distributor alignment by 180 degress so instead of 1-5-3-6-3-4 in the photo above, you need to go 6-3-4-1-5-3. [ Put the real wire to plug 6 where it shows plug 1 in the photo and so on]

Blue.....Your illustrations are always awesome, always helpful....keep up the good work.

Edited February 12, 201213 yr by Diseazd

Man, still doesn't work. Here is what I have.

Unless you routed your plug wires in a strange way, you still don't have them in the correct positions. Look CAREFULLY at the picture Blue posted. Also note that in the second picture you posted, the front of the engine is to the RIGHT. In your first picture (and in Blue's picture) the front of the engine is to the LEFT.

The correct order is shown in the photo Blue provided:

1-5-3-6-2-4 CCW

In the photo/diagram you provided you show an order of:

1-5-6-3-2-4 CCW

And if you have misinterperted the photo you may have:

1-4-2-3-6-5 CW

Reorder the cap to the proper firing sequence.

Just look at Blues picture, and copy the firing order.

Do you understand that number 1 is the front spark plug, number 2 is the next one, then number 3 and so on to the rear of the engine.

Number 1 wire in Blues picture goes to number 1 spark plug. Find number 2 wire in Blues picture and place that wire on number 2 spark plug. Then number 3 wire in blues picture goes to number 3 spark plug, and so on. Not too difficult.

Did you put the coil wire in the coil?

Ok. I'll go back and check the firing sequence again. I've been reviewing pictures and video of the engine and notice that the previous owner labeled the plug sequence 1 by windshield to 6 near the fan. This is opposite from what you guys mentioned and what I have from the manual. Why would someone do this? I think I might have to check the distributor cap too. N

Well...

IF someone installed the distributor 180 degrees out of phase, then #1 would be opposite of what all correct documents say.

Stop using the Haynes manual and get the Factory Service Manual. It's free -http://xenons30.com/reference.html

Edited February 13, 201213 yr by Zed Head

I have the FSM too.

So the old owner had labeled the plug as 1(windshield) to 6(front engine), which is opposite of all the diagram I've found. I've try that, but still don't work.

So I'm looking through my old videos to determine the plug sequence. I've determine the label (by previous owner) is incorrect and that the plug sequence is "normal". Could someone look through the video and help by verify this? This will help me rule out that its not the plug wires.

Video is posted on my blog. http://www.tumblr.com/blog/s30-280z