I'm such a dummy...

[craig083]

I have a 90 bonneville in nice shape with 99k miles on it. It started to miss a lot whenever it was really warm or rainy, so I decided to tear into it. The problem came down to the coil. So I bought a new coil and put it on and the car barely ran...

Frustrated, I figured it had to be a plug/wire issue. So I got all new plug wires and put them on, and it still ran rough, with backfiring and no power.

My buddy told me it had to be a plug. Even though I changed them a few months ago, I figured it was worth a try (after all they were autolites). The tips on the plugs looked really bad, so I figured this was the issue. Nope.

After hours and hours of checking things like vacuum hoses, cleaning things, I was still getting nowhere. I was about ready to give until I read a post on a forum with the same problems. They said they had plug wires crossed. I didn't think this would help me because I double and triple check the firing order.

But, it was the plug wires, I switched 2 and now it runs better than it ever did before. I don't know how I messed this up initially because I checked them many times. The good thing is I got a good tune up, it needed it anyway. I feel like such an idiot because I spent about 5 hours on it

[Arrowhead]

Join the club ! I do dumb stuff like that ALL the time !!

[spoiledred94]

My very first owned vehicle was a 61 VW Bus. I was pretty mechanically clueless and stared pulling this and that. After I put it back together It ran like crap and no power. I lived at the bottom of a very steep driveway and couldn't get out. My brother actually pushed it up and out wheile I WOT. Drove it to the VW mechanic and he rearranged the wires and vahlah it was fixed.

[1oldman]

I think anyone that has worked on vehicles very much has done that, me included. - BC

[xxdabroxx]

18436572 Small block chevy firing order. Imprinted into permanent memory. Haha. Have no idea what the 3800's is yet though.

[1oldman]

18436572 Small block chevy firing order. Imprinted into permanent memory. Haha. Have no idea what the 3800's is yet though.

Don't really need to know the firing order just for plug wires.
Read this thread: http://www.pontiacbonnevilleclub.com/fo ... =44&t=1684
If you know the cylinder locations, then it's connect 1 to 1, 2 to 2 and so on.

......2..4..6 cylinders
Water
Pump
....1..3..5 cylinders

[Keepin'her_going]

I'd like to meet the man who has always been immune to such mistakes. I've personally routed plug wires wrong, to where they burned on the exhaust manifold. I also have installed a distributor backwards, had to replace to starter on that one. The bad thing is even if you do some stupid things then learn better, there are times when the brain kinda stops working, and even though you know better you end up doing something dumb anyways.

So, just learn and move on, and don't kick yourself too hard!