Just bought a really straight '79 450 SEL 4.5 with decent interior for a song to have fun tinkering with. It was running on what sounded like about 4 cylinders but made it about 8 miles home. I took it for a few local rides to buy gas, etc. and at highway speeds of 60 the temp gauge started rising fast but got it home without incident. I started with ignition de-bug first and immediately noticed the plug wires were not hooked up in the correct 1-5-4-8-6-3-7-2 sequence. I changed them to the correct order and now the engine won't start at all!

So my question is how could it have been running in the first place?

Any ideas of where I should start? I'm guessing I need to verify the distributor is installed correctly by finding #1 TDC (comp stroke) and making sure the rotor is pointed at #1. I think it needs a fan clutch(feels pretty sloppy)but need to solve the ignition mystery first.

Carter
1979 450 SEL
1995 320E
1993 300SE
1984 300D

Are you sure you have the cylinder numbers correct? Right bank is 1234, left bank is 5678

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