Lancia Beta Forum

I hate to admit to such a dumb move, but when replacing the spark plug wires, I lost track of which one goes where.

In my (admittedly lame) defence, previous owner must not have done this in decades as the boots at distributor end had melted to the cap! Scraping them off pissed me off to the point I just pulled the cap entirely.

Fortunately a brand new one is on the way now, but I want to get these wires plugged back in.

(http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu183/abgwin/Lancia/1107607C-2275-4D8C-8D0A-C4B869615376.jpg)

I believe the center of the right 3 is for the coil, but in which order are the others?

Thanks for helping (this idiot) out...

Hi

Not so idiotic question in my book, do not have the info to hand, but hopefully some one will be along to give you chapter and verse....

If you are replacing the disti cap, then are you also changing the plug and could leads at the same time if they are old? Old plug leads can lead to poor ignition and for a relatively small outlay you will benefit from them in the long term.

Peter

Yes, have already changed spark plugs, was in process of changing wires/leads, and will change cap as soon as parts arrive.

Still have not located proper rotor, but plan to.

The firing order is 1-3-4-2. In the ignition cap, looking at the position visible in your hand - the middle one is fed from the coil, top left is no. 1, top right - no. 2, bottom left - no. 3 and botom right - no. 4.
In the engine head no. 1 cylinder is positioned from the timing belt side.

Thanks very much, I really appreciate the advice.

I'm trying to get the last bits of the fuel injection back in place so I can take her to our first outing together, Cars & Coffee at the Blackhawk Museum on Aug 2.

Well, I've reassembled the fuel injection and solved the primary problem of fuel leaking into the oil (assumed to have been a leaky injector) but now the car doesn't want to stay running.

It initially started but wouldn't hold enough rpm to stay running without my foot on the accelerator. I shut it down when we thought we saw a gas drip (there wasn't) and besides, it wasn't running smoothly.

Now it doesn't want to start at all. If it were carbureted, I'd say the timing was off and I'd static time it to get it going, but I don't know if you can static time the FI / electronic ignition models.

Throttle control valve? Various injection bits on the 'air' side can be stiff or full of dirt after a lay up. Could be a fault in the ECU?

I take it the fuel pump is still working?

Fuel pump is definitely still working (it's relatively new, according to previous owner and paperwork).

I have to assume the ECU is good, as it ran before, but of course it could have failed in the meantime.

I'm wondering, since it's always been cold natured, if the thermo time switch may be at fault.

Is there a way to test one?

Here' a few things to check...

Re-check you have the HT leads on correctly, and the distributor cap seated properly.  It's awkward to work on due to it's position.

Check for air leaks and earthing problems.

Check the sensors and loom on the water top rail, one cream-one brown.  Wiring could be crossed.

The thermo time switch controls the "fifth injector" which is located in the throttle body, on a cold start the fifth injector gets a timed signal (8 secs approx) via the thermo time switch/ECU/water temp sensor.  If you think this is flooding the engine...unplug the fifth injector and try a re-start.

See how you get on with these suggestions.

John.

Thanks for the advice.

Work has traveling out of the country (to the UK, in fact) this coming week so it has to wait till I return.

I think I'll start with a different spark plug wire set, as this new BWD one simply has too much tension in it. It might be for a different engine (though the coil lead is correct) with block mounted distributor.

Then I'll check out the air hoses along with a replacement temp sensor, thermotime switch, and if no change, start replacing the wiring harness. It's quite brittle.