r/mitsubishi•
kwuebo

1989 Montero Distributor Help

Hey all, I made a post about purchasing a 1989 V6 3.0 Montero a month ago and since I have gotten it back I have put in new plugs and wires as the old plugs were very bad and damaged and were causing a misfire. I initially installed them in order of how I pulled them and the Montero was running better, but I noticed that the order of the wires were completely wrong. I went online to check out just engine bay pictures since I couldn't find much online that was helpful and they all pretty much have it ran as it states by number on the cap 1 >1, 2 > 2, etc. Mine were very much NOT ran that way.

Before I say any more, yes I have made sure everything lines up to TDC on no.1 cylinder on compression stroke. The crank pulley is aligned, the rotor is pointed to no. 1 wire, and I have check the piston itself to see if its at TDC and it is.

I was told that the distributor is 180 degrees out, but with everything aligned, it couldn't be. I'm really at a loss for why it would run in the wrong order, but not the correct one especially when it ALL is set up to fire properly

I briefly adjusted distributor by advancing and retarding it to see if that might help and it did not.

Currently the order I have everything set to is as follows
Cylinder > Cap #
1 > 2
2 > 3
3 > 1
4 > 5
5 > 6
6 > 4

I know for a fact that I have the cylinders right, everything I have to reference states that from the front of the car (facing firewall) the cylinders are:
5 | 6
3 | 4
1 | 2
^

I'm really at a loss for words as to what my issue is, but it is 100% related to the distributor as that's what I have messed with since I got it home; and btw it ran perfectly aside from the miss in the dead cylinder because of that bad plug wire. If anyone can help out it'd be super appreciated

New Wires to Old order

Old wires and original order they were in

Posted Jul 9, 2025, 2:11 AM UTC

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