Right, well I had the day from hell yesterday! All I tried doing was new plugs, leads, dizzy cap and rotor arm on the merc (83 230ce) and all it did was kick me in the balls, over and over again 
then caught fire 
don't worry, it's fine.
Well, long story short, wrong rotor arm, didn't notice and it cracked and chipped the rotor arm and broke the centre electrode and messed up the new dizzy cap
Then (we think) that the dizzy had been re fitted at 90deg at some point (I think) because matching the firing order up to the top of the engine didn't work, we just ended up playing plug lead roulette until it ran! But it now runs a but rough, sounds rough at idle and idling low (600rpm, was about 8-900rpm before the highly succesfull service) but it drives ok and runs great right up the the red line on full throttle.
Then on the test drive one of the plug leads slipped and rested on the exhaust manifold, where it caught fire... No other damage other than plug leads tho (lucky)
So I'm thinking that the rough low idle is down to the timing being out, the rotor arm must have clobbered the dizzy cap fairly hard so it could have moved the dizzy a bit.
But I don't know what the timing should be?
Google tells me 8-12deg BTDC without the vac pipes connected?? If this is true?? Where are the timing marks??
I also fitted new plugs and the gaps were a tiny bit smaller than the old plugs. I bought the plugs ready tapped for this car so assumed they were right. But I also bought a rotor arm for THIS car, but that was wrong.. So don't know where to go and I don't have a HBOL for the car.
HELP!! I need the car for work Monday night
then caught fire 
don't worry, it's fine. Well, long story short, wrong rotor arm, didn't notice and it cracked and chipped the rotor arm and broke the centre electrode and messed up the new dizzy cap
Then (we think) that the dizzy had been re fitted at 90deg at some point (I think) because matching the firing order up to the top of the engine didn't work, we just ended up playing plug lead roulette until it ran! But it now runs a but rough, sounds rough at idle and idling low (600rpm, was about 8-900rpm before the highly succesfull service) but it drives ok and runs great right up the the red line on full throttle.
Then on the test drive one of the plug leads slipped and rested on the exhaust manifold, where it caught fire... No other damage other than plug leads tho (lucky)
So I'm thinking that the rough low idle is down to the timing being out, the rotor arm must have clobbered the dizzy cap fairly hard so it could have moved the dizzy a bit.
But I don't know what the timing should be?
Google tells me 8-12deg BTDC without the vac pipes connected?? If this is true?? Where are the timing marks??
I also fitted new plugs and the gaps were a tiny bit smaller than the old plugs. I bought the plugs ready tapped for this car so assumed they were right. But I also bought a rotor arm for THIS car, but that was wrong.. So don't know where to go and I don't have a HBOL for the car.
HELP!! I need the car for work Monday night
