Urgent- Spark Plug Wire Help!

Background: Check engine light came on Friday and began blinking, dealership said stop driving and tow the car in, so we did. Report from dealership on Saturday was that it was misfiring on #1, 2 & 4 cylinders. They said all it needed was new spark plugs and wires and the fuel injection system flushed. They wanted $320 for that. They flushed the fuel injection system for $120, I replaced the plugs and wires myself on Sunday.

Car has rough idle and absolutely no power when the gas is depressed. With the pedal to the floor it will get up to 55mph in about 45 seconds. When the rpms reach 3500 there is a popping sound coming from under the hood. The car will not go above 55 mph. I drove it yesterday for about 10 minutes and no light came on, but it did not get any better. Today the check engine light is flashing again.

I want to make sure I connected the spark plug wires back to the correct plugs to eliminate anything I did messing this up. I have been to the local Ford dealer and they don't know what order the wires are supposed to be connected. I have searched online and can find nothing, and I have looking in Chilton's repair manual and can find nothing.

I'm hoping either someone here knows how they are supposed to be hooked up or can at least run out to their truck and look for me.

My Explorer is a '97 XLT with the 4.0L engine, not the SOHC. Help is greatly appreciated, I don't want to have to take it back in and spend $ if it's something that can be easily corrected. The part where the plugs connect on top of the engine looks like this: ( as looking from the front )
3 4
2 6
1 5

Also, any other suggestions on what could be wrong if I did connect the wires correctly would be appreciated. I do have a full powertrain warranty, so if it's something that may be covered, all the better. Thanks so much!

Jeff

BTW- I did also change the serpentine belt this weekend, but after double checking that, it's on correctly.

sounds like half of the coil pack is bad or you might have defective or a crack in one of the wire insulation and it's arcing sound's like a coil probeblem or it could be mixed up wires

I found an old post from that showed how to hook them up for an older explorer, so I tried it and it seems to be running well now. Just to double check with those of you who know more about this car than I do, here is how I have the wires connected now as looking from the front of the car...

3 - 3 4 - 6
2 - 2 6 - 5
1 - 1 5 - 4

Jeff

Correct me if Im wrong.. since I have 1993 X and also have the Haynes Repair Manual here. For the 4.0L OHV engine of course. Im not sure if the 1997 is the same design as my Haynes manual states Explorers from 1991 to 1995 Models. But here is on page 1-2 under "Tune up and routine maintenance"

the number of cylinders order are
3 - 6
2 - 5
1 - 4


and the coils orders are
3 - 4
2 - 6
1 - 5


The firing order shows 1-4-2-5-3-6

If this orders for the 1997 is wrong then it probably have the timing changed by then.

Goonbery said:

I found an old post from that showed how to hook them up for an older explorer, so I tried it and it seems to be running well now. Just to double check with those of you who know more about this car than I do, here is how I have the wires connected now as looking from the front of the car...

3 - 3 4 - 6
2 - 2 6 - 5
1 - 1 5 - 4

Jeff

Click to expand...

That looks right to me. The best way to avoid this is to replace the wires 1 at a time. I have to admit however that I somehow managed to mess it up when I did mine

Are you sure the problem is relating to the spark plug wires? What code did the dealer retrive when they ran a diagnostic?

The dealer said it was misfiring on 1, 2 & 4 cylinders and that it needed new plugs and wires.

I was almost positive that I replaced the wires exactly how I took them off. And when I switched them last night to the positions that I stated above, the car ran better than it has since I bought it in January. Maybe the wires were crossed before by whoever owned it last, I don't know.

It seems to be running great now, so I must have everything in the correct spot. Thanks very much for the help.

Jeff

thank so much this really helped some how i seemed to mess the order up

I am noticing somewhat of the same problems on my 5.0 AWD. The X runs fine until it gets warm, and then it seems like everytime it drops into overdrive gears (4 and 5?) the engine shudders and shakes and sputters until it upshifts into third (AT by the way). It is also groggy from a stop. Same type of issues, it may take me 50 secs to get to 50 mph. Now I changed all of by plugs and wires a month ago or so and it never had a problem before then, but, I changed one at a time and it ran great after I was done. I used platinum 4 plugs and oem replacement (silicone jacket) wires. I did notice that some of the plugs were very hard to screw in do to the extreme angle the socket had to be at. Maybe a boot fell off one of my plugs. Also, as my engine was doing this last night there was a point where it stopped doing it and worked fine, which leads me to believe maybe one of my boots are loose and is making contact off and on... any suggestions. I think either way I am going to check my plugs and wires today...