Sorry, Bill, did not mean to make you laugh with what does turn out to be the answer sometimes, when someone reports it fired at first and ran crappy and then would no longer start.

Sure there is a sensor to be angered -- the Hall-effect sensor. Basically, it is the connector and wires in the distributor that are sensitive to manhandling. But you said "spark is wonderful."

OK, here are the statements that led me to question the firing order:

Balancer back on correctly, with the key lined up. When #1 is TDC, piston is where it should be.

Probably just semantics, but the piston position is what TDC means. Top Dead Center. Maybe you meant the notch on the pulley pointed at the cam when #1 was TDC.

Had a little learning curve with the new idler adjustment procedure, but everything is now lined up and happy.

Idler? Are you referring to the timing belt tensioner? Some folks call the intermediate shaft an "idler."

If that's the case, you can really get messed up there, as the mark is hard to see, and often (twice in my experience) a PO's mechanic will put the belt on the wrong tooth and then compensate by either pulling the distributor and repositioning the gear, or setting it way to one end of its adjustment. One tooth on the i-shaft gear is 19 crank degrees. You have to put it right.

Here's a way to check this without needing to pull the bottom cover.





--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

Birds are grouchy in the morning because their bills are over dew.