I have a 00 durango 5.2 V8 Magnum and the other day I changed my distributor cap and rotor button and now the engine doesn't want to start and when I finally get it to turn over the car acts like it's missing like it would if a plug wire were crossed and I have to keep revving the engine just to keep it running. I've checked all of the plug wires 3 or 4 times and they are all wired correctly. The plugs and wires are pretty new and only have around 2,000 miles on them. Anybody know what could be wrong???

 

what kind of plugs are you using?
did it idle bad before you changed the dist cap and rotor?
does your cap and rotor have brass connectors?

also make sure all of the wires to the ignition coil are not frayed

 

I'm using the Bosch Iridium plugs. The engine idled fine before I changed the cap and button, but there was some carbon buildup on the connectors. The connectors are not brass, and I checked the wires going to the coil and they're not frayed.

 

ok first of all no one around here with the magnum engines has had any luck with the bosch plugs they just dont seem to work well at all.
get some autolites or champion plugs . platnium plugs are worthless with magnum engines.

get a cap and rotor with brass connectors . maybe you can still return the new cap and rotor?
also under the rotor is the pickup coil , its a round piece of plastic that sits inside the bottom of the distributor. i have always had problems with these , which would make my durango and my old ram do the same thing yours is. double chek to see if the cap is seated right on the dist.

this might help too



theres a tsb on spark plug wire re-routing too

http://dodgeram.info/tsb/1998/18-48-98/18-48-98-v8.htm

hope this helps

 

Thanks dude, I'm gonna give that a try first thing in the mornin and let you know how it goes. But why are platinum plugs useless in a magnum?

 

I found out what the problem was, it sounded like there was a wire crossed because there was. When I wired the plugs back to the distributor I used the Haynes Repair Manual as my reference, and where the book shows number 1 on the distributor is actually number 2. I noticed something was different when you posted the wiring guide above. Your wiring guide is correct and the Haynes book is wrong. It figures I would have a very simple problem and over complicate it. Thanks for the help.

 

glad you found the problem
the platniums just dont work im not sure why but ive put them in my dodge ram and i could barely make it down the road, switched to champion truck plugs and the thing would drive up mt. everest