i re-checked the wires for the spark plugs on my 83 ranger 2.8 v6 and i had wires 2 and 3 crossed at the plugs. when i tried to start it agian in cranked and cranked but wouldn't fire. when it finally tried it made the aweful, almost grinding noise. i didn't try to fire it agian because i was afraid of hurting something. i am aware that i could still have the dstributor in place a 180 degrees off, but does anybody think it could be something else besides timing? i won't be working on it again until saturday, so any responce before then would be greatly appreciated.

 

Why do you still suspect that the distributor is 180 degrees off? If you brought #1 cylinder up to "TDC and READY-TO-FIRE", and verified that the rotor is facing the 11 O'Clock position on the cap and the wire for the #1 cylinder is on that distributor port (see picture in original post), then the distributor in in correctly. Have you verified this?