lookin at the front twards the back, the # one wire is at about between 6 and 7. lookin from the driver side twards the passenger, its about between 9 and 10. so this is wrong?

when i said 8:00 it was jus thinkin from wat i remember. i just went outside to look at it, and this is wat i saw.

From your most recent description, YES, This is Wrong.

Stand at the driver side fender (your right leg should be next to the driver side tire), with the coil right in front of you(looking straight down). The distributor has two clips that hold the cap in place. The #1 terminal on the cap is the FIRST wire to the "LEFT of the clip" that is on YOUR LEFT. This should be at approximately 8 oclock. Anything else is WRONG.

the wire is left of the clip, but its not at 8:00. I also have the rotor pointed in that direction when its at tdc.

Originally posted by z_boi

the wire is left of the clip, but its not at 8:00. I also have the rotor pointed in that direction when its at tdc.

So, Where is it in relation to a clock ?

from driver side, its approximately between 9 and 10

Originally posted by z_boi

from driver side, its approximately between 9 and 10

You have assembled something wrong. The clips that hold the cap on HAVE to be in only one place, at "about" 2 oClock and 8 oClock, since the dist can only bolt on two ways. One is correct, the other way is 180 degrees WRONG. Either way, the clips will be at "about" 2 and 8. Do you have a digital camera to post pictures with?

I will have to "assume" that you have the distributor installed on the timing cover correct. It sounds like you have the Distributor drive shaft installed one or two teeth off from where they should be. Look in that Chilton manual for a picture of what the Dist Driveshaft is supposed to look like when installed correctly. You'll have to remove the dsistributor to compare what you have to what the picture shows.

If you can't get a FSM reight away, try to find a Haynes Manual at a parts store. They are good too, but you still need a FSM if you are going to do serious work on your car.

Having recently gone through the same issues, I'll add one more thing to watch for. For my car (73 240 w/E31 head, 72 carbs, all else stock) after reassembling everything I had ablsolutely no power after 5k rpm - like a rev limiter had kicked in. Turns out that the notch on the cam was just to the right of the oblong mark just as the book says it should be. I also had made sure that the two "silver" links were correct when I had reassembled the engine. Eventually I tried retarding the cam by moving it one link back, and low and behold all was well again. Not sure if you will have the same issues I did, but watch for it.

And best of luck!

Try these, arrows do the talking.

finger is at the number one TDC POSITION FOR THE #1 spark plug wire

thats exactly where i have the rotor pointing at tdc

And this finger is at #4 ( notice the location of the fan, water inlet etc, for reference purposes)

I had'nt seen any one give you picture reference yet so I decided to hop in and get flash happy hope any of this helps

Dave