my XJ6 died suddenly

I have an 86/87 XJ6 and today all I was doing was changing the plug wires. I was careful in changing them as to not mix them up, but I swear they didnt seem right. I kept going. ANyway, it wont even turn over now. I am suspecting a weak battery after all the cranking maybe or maybe the gas is low. It tries to kick over on ether. I found a few of the old plug wires with loose clips and I used a compression gauge to make sure I put the correct plug wire in the sequence it belonged in with the timing of the spark versus the compression reading. I presume the cylinders on the 4.2 are 1-6 back to front in order and the firing is 153624. The dist is CC rotation ande I presume #1 cylinder belongs at about the 8 oclock position. I have not rotated anything. It simply wont start. I dont know what I did. I am about top put it on charge for the night and dump about 5 gallons of new gas in it, then try in the morning. I'm exhausted!!

Reply to
ed
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The best thing to do in your case is logically follow the steps you took. It sounds to me like you may have disconnected the wire from the coil to the distributor or one of the other wires on the distributor or the coil.

You need to see if you have spark. Take one of the spark plug wires off the spark plug and with a pair of INSULATED pliers, hold the metal end of the wire close to the engine and turn the car over. You should see a bright healthy spark. If you don't, you have reduced the problem to electrical. Best bets are a loose wire since what you describe as having done should not cause a failure in starting the engine.

Cheers Webserve

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webserve

Reply to
PeteR

Gentlemen, thanks for the reply. I have one for the books. I got it running in the dark at 6 a.m. today after I got up.

I got up today and immediately went to see if I could 180 the dist. cap. It turns out the cap only goes on one way, so there went that idea. I then thought about the little notes I took about the spark being a tad later than the max/compression reading of some of the cylinders last night. I had taken each plug out, layed it to ground, attached a pressure gauge to the cylinder then got my readings , observed a simultaneous spark, then moved to the next etc. I did notice a small delay on some cylinders, but not all. That was noteworthy, so this morning I went and moved each wire back a notch for the hell of it i.e. I put #4 into #2, #2 into #6 and worked back on the firing order on the distributor that way. I gave it a try and BINGO! I apparently had my #

1 cylinder in the wrong spot to start with on my wires last night. SO I made sure each wire worked, and although it idles a little low, which is a problem its had since I've owned it, its it old self again. The #1 cylinder, for future reference, if anyone can follow, should be at about the 10 oclock position on the distributor. I had it at about 8 oclock.
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ed

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