Helped my girlfriends son replace a timing belt (well chain actually) tensioner. After a pain in the a__ job got everything put back together and now we can't get it to start. Have sparks, and I can smell the gas on the plugs when I took them out to check them so we have fule and fire. One thing is that it look like there may be a sensor wire missing from the distributor but I can't tell if there is supposed to be one there or not from the Chilton's manual. He "thinks" that there was a wire that went there but I can't find it. Set the distributor to TDC and checked all the plugs already...Anyone have any ideas or suggestions. It is his first car i think about an 89 or 90 and has 240K on it so it has seen better days. Any help is appreciated!

Pete
Charlotte NC

it sounds like the electronics arent right, unless the chain moved several links on the cam gears, and its not getting proper compression. did you mark the chain on both cam gears, so that it was reinstalled correctly? you said you checked the plugs, are they sparking? pull a plug wire and put a dummy stock spark plug in it an touch it to the head and turn the motor over to see if it sparks. if its sparking, and youve got fuel on them, then the compression is not there. if its not sparking, there is a wire disconnected somewhere that hasnt been reconnected.