fukc up 101

[working_on_iy]

Alright. I bought a 88 VW golf. not gti not gl just golf. i put new plugs, wires, rotor and distributor cap on her and it all fits well... but the problem is, you can`t trust friends, lol. i let then install the plugs while i was painting on my other friend`s car. when they instaled the wires they forgot wich wire goes where! :eek: Can anybody help me out? I could really use a hand now. my e-mail address is [email protected] thanks a sht load guys!

[QuasarCav]

There is only one right way, you can only screw up 3 times before you find it.

[Thaco]

actually there would be 16 different combonations.


if you have a service manual it should tell you the firing order.

(just keep trying until it works... you cant really screw anything up by putting them in the wrong order.... also if you just put them on judging by the length of the wire it may work.)

[working_on_iy]

yeah. one of the problems is that everything was taken apart.. i got the shortest wire closest to the cap and the longest father from the cap. but where do they go on the cap... one way I tryed was looking up some pics on the net.. cars with the same engine and components and trying to see what wire goes where. i think ive got it but now i need a boost cause ive drained my battery trying to start her, lol. thanks for the help guys, very apretiated.

[philipoo]

is it a 4 cylinder?

longest wire plug goes to the 1st lol

[Supa Dexta]

Isn't there like 24 combo's?

1234
1243
1324
1342
1423
1432

and then

2134
2143
2314
2341
2413
2431

etc

I found this, does it help?

"The firing order for all air-cooled Volkswagen engines is 1-4-3-2, so make sure the plug wires go around the distributor cap clockwise in that order."

[Zero102]

Almost all 4 cylinder engines have either a 1-4-3-2 or 1-3-4-2 firing order, in the case of your golf, it is 1-4-3-2. It is probably actually printed in the engine bay somewhere.
The easiest thing to do if you don't have a diagram of how the wires on the cap, is set the engine to TDC, and the rotor will be pointing at the post on the distributor for cylinder #1.

Otherwise, you have it down to 4 ways now, depending where it starts :)