Please Help. I recently bought a 1995 dodge caravan SE 3.0L and it was running pretty good. But I wanted to service everything so I did the oil, the tranny, new throttle position sensor, new automatic idle air speed motor sensor, new o2 sensor, new catalytic converter, new muffler, new plugs, new wires, new cap, new rotor, new brakes, added lucas tranny additive. I also put in a new fuel pump/sending unit in it along with a new fuel filter. So I drove it to Reno, about 75 miles from home, and it ran very very smooth and perfectly with no problems along the way. But after an hour of shopping, went back and when i started the van, it took a couple extra revolutions before it started and when i tried driving it, it acted like it had no power and wasnt getting any fuel and was back firing and i pulled over and shut it down. So i checked everything and could not get it to start. So i took the fuel filter off and it was clear, had my wife crank it, and it pumped fuel out of the line but with a little pressure, maybe like a garden hose but i coul easily plug the fuel line with my thumb when she cranked it and had some pressure but my dad thought not enough. So i put the old fuel pump/sending unit back in and still nothing. So my dad noticed the timing was not right. So we bought a new distributor and still nothing. used compression test and got it to TDC and lined the mark on the pully up to the 0 mark on the gauge. but when we put the distributor back in, we could not get it to face exactly backwards to the number one plug, it was either 3/4" to the left or right. So we kept messing with it and coule not get the timing to get close to make it run. So anyways for some reason we finally got it running way out of time and crappy and got it home. So we then did the TDC again to make sure it was staying the same. It started this morning but way off time and couldnt move the dis far enough to get it to time, so we cut and grinded the distributor so we can move it way left and right. We tried EVERY position on the dis to get it to run, moving it little by little each way and still nothing. So now, the van will not even start. put the old cap and rotor back on and that didnt help. So we dont know what to do and are looking for help. my dad thinks we need to either take off the timing belt and redo the timing inside the engine, OR he thinks it is the ignition computer thats bad on it. Im going to do a compression test on all cylinders and check that to make sure there are no bent valves or anything. But we just dont know what to do to it now. If anybody can help me out, i would greatly appreciate it. the coil gives spark and the apsrk plug wires have spark, orange spark though. But please help. Email: stretchallen25@yahoo.com

 

If you look under the cap you'll notice that #1 wire tower is not where # 1 terminal is. It's like almost on the other side. Aim the rotor at the screw closest to the intake that holds the pickup plate cover on. 3.0L is not an interference engine so you won't bend any valves. The timing marks for the belt are pretty plain to figure out too.