SharkSkin

Agreed, if that's at TDC-#1 firing then the distributor is 180° off. You need to check cam position to be sure -- more details here. That doesn't account for the behavior with AFM plugged/unplugged, I'm just offering as an FYI.

Thinking about this a bit more, your timing looks way advanced. See the writeup I linked above for a rough starting point.

Tempermental

Thanks folks -checking wire sequence now

strange my bosch distributor 0 290 004 502 has the numbering on it

4 8 rear pair
5 1
6 3
2 7 frontmost pair

Hmmmm haven't touched timing at all
Thanks SharkSkin, I have your site bookmarked along with nichols, and a few others- great resource

SharkSkin

Those numbers make no sense, unless the cap is off by 120° counter-clockwise. From the page I linked:

Tempermental

Damnit!



I assuuummmmed!!!!!!!!!
Well I know what I'm doing this afternoon-

Landseer

Carl, first of all, the numbering I gave you is the layout of the cylinders itself, not positioning on the cap. I figured you just had them wrongly arranged on a good 928 cap.

Frontmost means, you facing the block, 1 closest to you on the passenger side of the block, 5 closest to you on the drivers side of the block.

That said, the rotor faces somewhat towards the radiator at TDC. So you have, maybe, the wrong cap (benz?) or the wrong orientation of underlying distributor.

Looks at least like you are narrowing it down. The firing order sharkskin shows is the pattern around the cap. Your cap has the same sequence, wrong positioning. Again, did you say benz cap on pelican?

Here's about where #1 falls relative to the engine:

Tempermental

Yeah my bingo moment wasn't real -a quick search of that # gave me mercedes references so I once again assumed --I know the cylinder layout, for some reason I had brainfart and thought "I must have wired 'em wrong" ,"yeah thats got be it", "always the simple things"

problem still exists--off to print out your suggestions and sharkskins troubleshooting steps

I'll post a vid sooner or later

Landseer

If the biatch isn't bleeding fluids onto the floor or out its tail pipe, then its just minor adjustment and sequencing.

Kudos for tackling it. Keep the faith. It will run solidly.