Greetings all!
I thought it would be a good idea to put a tune up on my 89 dakota 3.9 litre before heading to minnesota next week and am stuck bad.
thought i had all wires reset properly, truck will not run or start. Have been through my hanes manual six times trying to figure what went wrong.
distributor cap has a one on it, plug one, clockwise till i run out of plug wires. rotor is still tight, distributor tight pickups inside cap look right-didnt touch- not sure what i did. Turns over like they sound on tv when they need to get away.......turn at normal speed, then slows down a second like battery low, keeps on but slows down, goes normal, slows down for a sec likewhat did i do.
know it is something really small and stupid, could use your help....thanks
scooter

 

I cant seem to get a reply here, must be the only one not working today cause truck stranded me, I stranded her. I have been reading posts all morning and saw a post that refered someone to a section for info...DIY, but cant seem to find. I never claimed to be the smartest.......thanks

 

89 views and not even a return howdy...have a good day folks!

 

You sure it is just not your battery the way you say it slows down?

 

I will move this to the 1st generation Dakota sub-section.

 

Just covering some of the basics here.
The firing order is 1-6-5-4-3-2 clockwise on the dist. cap
1-3-5 being on the drivers side front to rear
2-4-6 on passenger front to rear.

Not sure if the same is true for the 89's but on my 93 if you moved/twisted/rotated the distributor at all you need to index it since there isn't a way to "time" these motors.

The case maybe the same if you had the wires on wrong and cranked the engine but I'm only guessing at that and hopefully someone will come along and either confirm or correct me

 

hmmm is the spark off

 

It sounds to me like you have your firing order incorrect, I would check, then double check your firing order.

 

x2, probably the most common mistake during tune-ups, especially when wires are changed.