I have a 89' GTUs that has been converted to a carb setup. Recently, its been running like crap and im about 90% sure I popped the rear rotor, but I want to figure out what made it pop so when I drop in the new motor, the same thing wont happen.

I was looking through the FSM and Owners Manual yesterday while looking under the hood of my car to try and figure out what was up with it when I realized on the distributor cap, ALL the spark plugs were hooked up backwards. I.E.: The trailing plug on the front rotor was attached to the L1 spot on the cap. And the Leading plug was attached to the T1 spot. Same thing with the rear rotor.

Heres the wierd part.

When I saw this, I thought, "oh look, there backwards, that's where its messed up at." and reversed them to the correct spots. I went to try and start the car and just got a couple loud backfires but it wouldn't actually start.

Any ideas as to why this could be? Trailing/Leading coils hooked up backwards too or something? Because I don't know how to tell the trailing and leading coils apart.

 

Well. The obvious question is, if you switch them back does it start fine?
I'd hate to have you stranded at work..

 

Well. I went home and changed them around. It popped once (I guess from carbon buildup? you'll see why in the next couple sentences.) and started up just like normal...

Odd thing though. I pull the wire off the leading coil and it did nothing to the car. I pulled the wire off the trailing coil and the car would instantly die, even with the leading coil plugged in.

On a sadder note, I was about to leave my friends house when a loose ground arc'd and made my carb catch fire when I was trying to start it. Oh, what fun it was trying to put out a gasoline fire... I need a new hood now. Theirs a big spot of cracked paint. and another where the paint just bubbled up.

Pics to come tomorrow.

 

What the ****. The leading coils do most of the work. Without them the engine will die are you SURE you have them right? Leading is on the front, and it has the markings L1 and L2 near the plugs. Trailing is near the back and has T1 and T2. rotor 1 is the rotor towards the front the the car, and 2 is towards the cabin. Leading wires go on the bottom (leading) plugs while trailing wires go on the top (trailing) plugs.

I know these are super basics, and I apologize if you already know this but it makes no sense that taking off the trailing coils would kill the engine and leading wouldn't. Colour me confused.

 

Yea tell me about it. But I swear that's how its working. It ran great until it caught fire out front of my friends house.

Now its broken down out in front of my friends house. I cant get it to start after the fire. Tried jumping it, no luck...

Engine just cranks and cranks. Probably flooded....

 

sounds like your coils are hooked up to the wrong spot on the distributor.

 

so I got an odd question regarding spark plugs.

I've had my 91' for about 3 years and I'm trying to replace my spark plugs because my car isn't starting (and from what I've been told from multiple people, it's a spark problem).

Now the funny thing is I pulled out the T2 plug and...it's a leader? I haven't pulled the other ones out because I don't want to mix everything up. I'm not sure how it's running when at least 1 plug is in the wrong port. And is it healthy for my car to have the plugs in the wrong spot IE: how damaging can it be to the car?

 

Issue ended up being a bad igniter and coil.

 

Good to know you fixed it, but where are the pix? lol

 

Doh! Completely forgot. When I get home, I'll try to find a camera and take some pictures.