changing ignition lead set

Silly boy. Pop down to Halfords and buy a Haynes manual. It will give the layout. And stop and think next time you do some DIY.

BTW, your 'bosch unit' is commonly known as the distributor.

obviously you should only have removed and replaced them one at a time.

your quickest course would be to either look under the bonnet of another same model car.

or get the rac man out again and get him to fit them

mrcheerful

The message from "Dave Plowman (News)" contains these words:

Mind you - I've done it too.

Worse, I spent ages trying to get my old Allegro working when I had leads 2+3 swapped. The only consolation was that the experience came in handy when I was helping a neighbour start a kitcar which had been fiddled with by the local kids.

If you are lucky, the bosch unit (distributor) may have the plug lead order molded into the plastic cap, like my old Volvo did, ie, a 1 2 3 4 printed beside the relevant hole. If it has this and you can figure out which lead goes to which plug by the lead length - you should get the firing order right. Good Luck ! and don't do it again. ;)

But don't count on the RAC doing it for nothing! Your membership covers breakdowns, not fixing botched DIY jobs.

I usually change the dozzy top at the same tip, and arm too, that way if i hole the new dizzy top exacly as the one fitted i can remove each lead and pop on the new one one at a time.

Well, yes. But I'll bet you could work it out from the firing order without having to ask anyone.

Older BMC had the firing order stamped on the exhaust manifold. Turn the engine over with a plug removed with your thumb over the hole to feel compression. Then the rotor arm points to that cylinder's lead.

But then you knew that. ;-)

What would the consequences be of getting the firing order incorrect?

TIA!

It won't go. If you're lucky a couple of cylinders will fire.

The message from "Dave Plowman (News)" contains these words:

I did /after/ the event, yes.

The message from "Krycek" contains these words:

Well, like you've said, you've got two right - so it'll try to run but not manage it. Lots of farting and banging.

On and old car this probably wouldn't matter much (though if you were darned unlucky you might damage something). On a car with a catalytic convertor it'd be a bad thing if you let it happen for more than a second or two because of the amount of unburnt fuel going down the exhaust. Cats expect a little unburnt fuel - but that much would mean trouble.

Personally I'd just take a guess on the two you don't know and if it doesn't fire properly first time swap 'em.

Actually, I'd take the cap off, roll the car forward in top gear and see which way the rotor arm turned. That'd tell me which way to count from

1. Firing order is almost certainly 1342.

"Julian 'Penny for the guy' Hales" wrote in message news:MnhCd.41832$ snipped-for-privacy@fe1.news.blueyonder.co.uk...

but then again you'll be able to afford a new motor with the Tsunami dosh.

Yeah, my Seicento's like that, but it has ignition coils, not a distributor. However, they aren't always easy to see.