engine crisis

[panzershreck]

just installed a new distributer cap for my M20 engine (old cap the nodes had almost burned completely through)... got the spark plug wires put in perfectly no problem... but when i tested the engine with the new cap the first thing i heard was a VERY loud knocking noise coming from the engine with very poor idle (almost died several times) but ran fine at higher rpm's... in addition the ticking from the valves has gotten much louder... what exactly is happening here? none of this happened at all with the previous cap

[Martin in Bellevue]

I'd pull the cap & check the rotor is seated properly. Then check all the plug wire connections. Then check wires for resistance & pull the plugs to see if the gaps still exist.

[632 Regal]

betcha you mixed up a couple wires!

[panzershreck]

im going to check on the rotor tomorrow as well as check the wiring and cap-end wiring connectors (as the cap was still original, never been replaced)...

as for mixing up wires, i've checked about 5-6 times now, and before i first started it up i checked 3 times... unless im going insane or something... i didnt even check that many times when i replaced the timing belt almost 2 months ago...

[632 Regal]

LMAO...number one is in the front (right?)

[panzershreck]

yeah, CYL No. 1 is in front

[winfred]

the cap is numbered

[panzershreck]

ok, so here's a very poor quality crap picture of the rotor, probably still original as well, hard to tell but all the black stuff where there's usually the metal strip, is corrosion... im going to replace it anyways, do you think the corrosion could be the problem when contacting brand new nodes?