86' will not start

Car was running rough then would not start. Found two spark plug wires disconnected at distributor and coil wire lose at distributor.
Have replaced plugs, plug wires, distributor cap and rotor.
Car will still not start. You can hear like an internal backfire (not very loud) coming from somewhere under hood while trying to crank.
Reading my chilton- it says catalytic converter could be bad now. Anybody have an idea of what else can be wrong before I try to replace this.

I Hope your engine didn't jump time. Thats what happend to mine with those symptoms. :-(

Sounds likethe chain is jumped to me. Did you see if the rotot turns during cranking?