Need some help with Dist and timing

Ok, so here is the deal, my XJ is a 1992 Auto 4x4. 4.0liter, last night as i was getting on the freeway, the distributer mount broke, and therefore my engine died. No oil pressure because DIst kept popping out. Luckily I shut off immediately and I think I did no damage to the engine. This morning, put in a new distributer, now it cranks, but it seems to be 180 degrees off on the timing end, I moved the dist 10 different ways to try and get it right but nothing. Now it cranks and cranks and cranks but will not fire up, any ideas or recomendations??
thanks in advance!!

The simple way is to turn the engine until it is at 0 degrees as shown by the crankshaft damper and the timing marks. Then align the oil pump at the bottom of the hole so you can slip in the distributor. You will either be pretty much right on or 180 out.

The problem you are fighting now is most likely that your plugs are wet. Pull them and wash them with carb cleaner, let them dry and put them back in. You would think they would fire when wet with gas but I've seen plenty of problems due to this.

Why is it that they would be wet?

Uh..... they'd be wet with unburned gas.

ChiXJeff said:

Uh..... they'd be wet with unburned gas.

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oh

old_man said:

The simple way is to turn the engine until it is at 0 degrees as shown by the crankshaft damper and the timing marks. Then align the oil pump at the bottom of the hole so you can slip in the distributor. You will either be pretty much right on or 180 out.

The problem you are fighting now is most likely that your plugs are wet. Pull them and wash them with carb cleaner, let them dry and put them back in. You would think they would fire when wet with gas but I've seen plenty of problems due to this.

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You can do as Tom said but pull the #1 plug. Put your finger over the hole. You will be at TDC when you can feel pressure building up AND the timing mark on the damper is lined up with the pointer.

B-loose

you can still be 180 degrees out if #1 is at TDC. if it cranks fine but just won't fire , line the timing mark up at 0 and pull the distributer out , make sure oil pump slot is at 11 oclock position with 12 being the block ,rotate the rotor 180 degrees to point at #1 spark plug wire terminal (start about 4oclock but will rotate to 5 oclock as you slide it in) , reassemble. old man just helped me with this the other day :thumbup:

Sweet, thanks for all the tips, I will try them tonight, it does crank just fine, but will not fire up.

My #1 plug is behind that darned A/C compressor so I tend to do the 50/50 change method:laugh3: The slickes thing I've seen for that is a sparkplug modified as a whistle. It whistles when coming up on the compression stroke.