97 sunfire missing on #2

robert78.5

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My daughters car started rough this morning and engine light came on after started. Was running rough still, i hooked up reader and it says misfire on 2 cyl, i pulled wire off while running and it has very little spark when i put a screwdriver in wire and grounded close to altenator frame. Pulling off each other wire separately made a difference on idle. Number 2 seems dead. Plug looks good. I tried to follow spark plug wires behind engine but could not see where they go to. There must be a coil or distributor back there somewhere.?????
 
If you have good spark it's proabably a fuel system issue,
I would try a can of good injector cleaner if all of the wires are good and the coil pack /distributor terminals are all good.. (it should be bolted to the block in the rear of the engine)
 
It's been awhile since i worked on a car but from what i remeber is when you put a screwdriver in the sparkplug wire and held the screwdriver close to a metal ground with engine running, you would get a sharp blue spark. This wire i am talking about has a faint thin spark, as do the other wires.I did get a jolt from screwdriver when i touched the metal shaft by mistake.
 
With todays High voltage systems thats a bad way to test the spark as it could easily damage the solid state ignition system
that and you sometimes cant get a good enough ground to actually see what a good spark is ...
also with todays fuel systems they can easily be the culprit when a misfire is detected as with no fuel there will be no combustion on that cylinder (which will register a missfire) for that cylinder ...
but they still can have a bad ignition component (coil, wire, plug,) ETC..
but if after you check all ignition components the fuel system is the next step..
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I think i found the problem, i checked the resistance in all four wires and three show the same and the #2 wire shows nothing for resistance. I will get a new set of wires tommorrow and try it. By the way what is the firing order when starting from top of coils.
 
I think its 1-2-3-4 from the front (pass side of the engine)
but don't quote me ..lol..
sorry but Im retired and has been a while ..
probably call your dealer to be sure ..
 
I was wanting firing order on coils. Looking at engine from backside.
 
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Anyone?? 4132 Starting from the top coil is what i found in a book, i installed new wires and plugs and it won't start. souns like it is out of time kicking back on starter.
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Got it running, i took it as the spark plug firing order was 1234 as marked on the old spark plug wires, when in actual fact it is 1342, runs like a top now.
 
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