The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Dumb newbie mistake

My 235 was running pretty smoothly. I cleaned the plugs, then re-installed. ( they each had a little black soot, nothing too bad ) Started her up, and then followed an old timers advice and proceeded to back all of the plug wires back off of the plugs slightly in order to " burn 'em off" a little while it is running. I got to the last wire and when it shocked the [censored] out of me, I dropped it and prceeded to knock off the adjacent wire as my hand beat a hasty retreat. Now both plug wires are hanging loose and sparking like mad all over the block, starter, etc. After trying to replace the two wires multiple times and getting shock repeatedly, I decided < duh > to cut her off and replace them. Now when I crank her up it sounds and feels like I am only running on 5, maybe 4 cylinders. Question: Did I burn up the wires, screw up the distributer, or what else could I have done to screw it up? Yeah, it was a really dumb mistake, and the hell of it is the engine was running rather nicely in the first place. ( if it anin't broke, don't fix it, huh?) At any rate, I appreciate all the help you folks with experience can give me. Thanks.

Sure you put them back on in the right place?

firing order: 153624

one question: did you pull the wires off with your bare hands? it would be a good Idea to get a spark plug wire puller, cause you can really get hurt by that electricity. Some systems shoot electricity through those wires thats 30,000 volts and up. Once the wires are off of the plugs, the electricity has to go somewhere. good luck, and be careful. did you make sure you seated the wires all the way on the plugs? sometimes they wont fire if they arent seated all the way.

[ 01-23-2002: Message edited by: gmcfan ]

I believe that his problem will be solved if he switches the two wires that came off.(pull off the plugs and switch)