help!!!!

[Navin]

I changed the cas o ring and the heater hoses on my car today. after lots of swearing and scratching my head I got everything back together and all was good...............at first!!!!
When I started the car there was a loud tapping noise coming from the engine. I drove the car home which is about a mile away and the tapping seemed to stop I then went to get petrol and the car was very sluggish. If i try and accelerate the car would shudder and backfire!!!!!
Any ideas of what i'v done!!!!!!

[sidewaysreilly]

yeah, your ignition timing is out. You need to set it properly.

[Navin]

How do I do that? I marked the case in 2 places to make sure it went back in the right position! It took me ages to get it back in though, as I couldn't get the two dogs to line up in there slots! Took me well over an hour and lots of fags!!

[gunners5]

Yeah the timing must be way out, you will need to get your hands on a timing gun.Find the small notch on your front crank pulley and mark it with tip ex.Also mark the 10 on the front of the timing belt cover as this represents 10 degrees BTC.Set your timing gun point it down in front of the crank pulley undo the bolt on the CAS and adjust it until everything is lining up and the right timing is achieved.I think thats how I done it.

[Steve]

dogs 180degrees out?

[Navin]

I read that the dogs can't go in 180 degrees off, they will only go in one way. Is that right?

[mx5ash]

Yeah I don't think think they can go 180 out as they are offset. Timing must be out as said, I can get my hands on a timing gun for you sure Dave has one

[Navin]

Thanks for the offer ash but I was talking to a fella there and he has one so I'll be calling out to him tonight. I hope that will sort it!

[sidewaysreilly]

is it a 1.6 or 1.8????

[mx5ash]

It's a 1.8

[sidewaysreilly]

ok, there are 2 marks on the 1.8, one is tdc, the left one and the other is 10deg btdc. When the timing is set to standard 10degs the right hand one will align with 0 on the timing cover when you shine a light on it or 4 degs if you use the timing(14deg) mod. HTH

[Navin]

Thanks for the info, I'll let my mechanic know that as I don't really know what that means!!! I took it to him earler and he used the timing light but he couldn't see any marks on the pulley. He moved the cas and the engine sounded better but still not great. It was still backfiring and spluttering on the way home. He's going to take it in later in the week and have a proper look at it as well as a few other jobs that need doing. He seemed to think though that if the dogs did go back in the wrong way round that the engine prob wouldn't run at all. He said that their more than likely off set so they could go in the wrong way.

[sidewaysreilly]

not sure which 2 plugs fire together (anyone ?) its wet and i dont wanna go out in the rain to look. But it may run if installed incorrectly as they fire 2 plugs together and if they fire 1 with 4 and 2 with 3 then it will run albeit badly.

EDIT.
They do indeed fire 1 with 4 and 2 with 3 so it will run if put in arseways.

[Navin]

Maybe that's it! I had the spark plug leads out as I was going to cheak the plugs but didn't bother in the end so I just put the leads back on starting with the one nearest the front of the car working backwards. Do they need to go back in a certain order?

I did put the right leads back onto the right plugs.

[sidewaysreilly]

the longest to no 1 and shortest to no4 and the middle 2 should be obvious.