HEEELLLP! gorgeous wealthy woman needs to reconnect her spark plug wires

1-3-4-2????

1999 Corolla. Beloved and Fearless automobile that has been lept upon by deer, blasted by meteorites, and STOLEN....and always came home.

Remember how it says in all the books to LABEL the wires before disconnecting them?

1-3-2-4 :cheers:

boy i hope so...the weasel who stole BLT (brave little toaster) stole the owner's manual which has the picture of the wiring. connecting now....testing.....NOPE...i don't think that's right. at least, the car won't start.

well i started it again, and it seemed the engine would leap out of the engine compartment! i turned it off immediately. the firing order doesn't have a darn thing to do with these holders!

i am trying several other orders, but none seem to work right, and all so far make the engine run rough or as if it's going to leap out of the bloody car. trying some more.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLP PPPP!!!!!

here's what i did. IS THIS SO WRONG?????

i disconnected ALL THE WIRES (i know i know), thinking i had looked at both ends and would remember.

i removed the plugs with a long socket. i replaced the new plugs (pregapped, according to the vendor) and snugged them in with the same long socket. about 1/4 turn after they hit bottom to snug them in.

during this time, i had the battery disconnected to let the engine 'check' light reset, so when i started the car up, the light would not stay on. evidently the computer counts the number of misfires and then turns the check engine light on if it counts too many. the vendor told me to disconnect the battery for 10 minutes and the light would go out. ok so i did that.

then i installed the new plug wires on the engine (spark plug) side, which are numbered and set in little holders so it is obvious which spark plug they go to. that i don't think could be the problem. one is the longest wire and 4 the shortest.

they have a long plastic rod on the spark plug side, plus the wires are set in little holders, so it is very obvious which ends go on the plugs, and how.

however, it isn't marked on the other side, toward my right hand (when facing the engine compartment and looking in under the hood from the front of the car), where they go into the distributor.

it's not a round distributor cap like i am used to from when i really worked on cars alot years ago, but a sort of plastic bracket in two pieces, that i assume is ontop of the distributor, and like is shown in my newer repair books.

this 'other end' of the spark plug wire clips onto a kind of bracket on the RIGHT side of the engine.

if i change position and stand on the LEFT side of the car, looking in to the engine compartment, in other words, i see FOUR plug wire spots. two on my left, a space, and two more a little more towards my right.

like this 12...34. the dots are the gap between the two sets of end spots for the wires.

i think of those 4 brackets as 1234. And if you say 1324, i take wire 1 and put it on spot 1, wire 3 and put it on spot 2, wire to and put it on spot 3, and wire 4 and put it on spot 4.

CLUE...wire 4 barely barely barely will stretch to hold number 4, no matter how i wiggle the little wire holders, it looks like a very tight stretch.

the way i think of it, they can't go in in a 1234 order, so that the engine fires in 1234 order, because that will make the engine leap all over the place. so i dont think the wires can go in in 1234 order to the distributor side. if i am thinking right, the distributor controls which spark plug fires first. so the 'brains end' of the deal is at these 4 little brackets on the right side of the engine, above the distributor. and they have to be in the right order.

next, i think two wires that fire one after the other can't be too close to each other, or their magnetic fields will...ah...i just remember it's not good.

and oh yes. i snugged the boots down on the spark plugs. it's obvious that they need to be seated to keep the plugs clean and to make a good connection with the plugs.

when i tried to start it, the engine light came on and it would not turn over. AND YES i reconnected the battery. i did that and right away attempted to start the car. right away....do i have to wait for the battery or something?

this would be FINE if it were the old round distributors i am used to, and the wires go in clockwise. but this one is different, AND different even from the 1998's, which have the traditional distributor i'm used to. this is just a row of horizontal terminals.

SO PLEASE HELP!!!! WHAT HAVE I DONE? help this poor newbie do it yourselfer. THe last car i worked on was my 1974 SAAB LE WHICH I LOVED and had manuals, tools and a saab mechanic boyfriend to help me. but he NEVER did anything for me, he would just stand there and say NOOOOOOO....if i was doing something wrong! he wanted me to learn myself, and i did! overhauled the whole front end and did all my own maintenance. and ps, i am trying to do it myself as i was laid off last year and have no money. i was able to afford the parts and nothing else.

still trying different combinations!

thanks for the cheese, man! it's 1-4-3-2! fixed it myself!

SMOOOOOOOTH!