How do you know which wire goes where on the ignition coil and spark plugs on a Ford Windstar?

Answer 1

This is commonly referred to as the firing order - the sequence that each plug receives the electrical charge at just the right time for the fuel / air to be in the engine cylinder, ready to to be ignited for explosion (the piston at its peak and putting the maximum squeeze on the air / fuel).

To establish the firing order, you need three things:

1. The cylinder numbers
   
   
2. The coil pack numbers
   
   
3. The firing order sequence
   
   

Cylinder numbers

They're basically all the same on Ford products and easy once you know some of the landmarks.

• Front of the engine -
  
  
  • On a rear wheel drive, that's the end of the engine, get this: at the front of the vehicle
    
    
  • On a front wheel drive, where the engine has been turned sideways in the engine compartment (aka transverse mount), the front now is on the left side, up close to the passenger side fender.
    
    
  • Another way of saying it, is the front is opposite from where the transmission attaches to the engine.
    
    
• Who's #1
  
  Standing in a way that has you looking down at the front of the engine, #1 is the front, left corner. (like the first violin player in the orchestra is directly to the conductor's left side)
  
  So for the front wheel drive, it's back by the windshield closest to the passenger side fender.
  
  
• All the rest of the numbers...
  

• • 4 cylinder engines - count straight back, 1 - 2 - 3 - 4
    
    

  • 6 & 8 cylinder engines - cylinders are evenly divided on each side, so on the left: 1 - 2 - 3, and the right side, front-to-back, 4 - 5 - 6
    
    Another way of "saying" it for a front wheel drive:
    1-2-3
    4-5-6
    (Frt. Of vehicle)
    
    Adjust accordingly for V8 engines - you can handle the math I'm sure
    
    
• Banking on it (Bonus material terms)
  
  Each set of cylinders on each side of the engine is known as "Bank 1" or "Bank 2"
  The easiest way to remember who's #1 is to know that Bank 1 is the side where cylinder #1 is.
  
  

Coil Pack Numbers

This one isn't so easy, and may not be so standardized on Ford engines. The placement / orientation of the coil pack on the engine varies too.

Not surprisingly, for a V6 engine (most common is cars today), the 6 contacts on the coil pack are in 2 even rows.

Landmark: there is a point of reference to base the numbering on: a 4 pin/wire connector

For the Taurus/Sable/Windstar engines, the coil pack numbers go like this:

• • --4 PIN--
    -----------------
    --1--- 2--- 3--
    ----------------
    --5--- 6--- 4--
    ----------------
    
    
• NOTE the irregular sequence on the 5-6-4 side. Weird, but that's the way it is.
  

Firing Order
This refers to the sequence the cylinder is to receive the ignition spark. You might have thought "logically" a simple 1-2-3-4,etc, but that's NOT the way it works.

In 'order' for the engine to run smoothly, there's a particular sequence that each piston needs to fire it's "power stroke" - ignite the air/fuel.

At some point, Ford engineers thought it would be handy if all their 6 cylinder engines utilized the same firing order / sequence:

• 1-4-2-5-3-6

What about 4 and 8 cylinder engines?

• 1-3-4-2
• 1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8

Connecting it all together
We've got all the numbers and locations, so we know where each end of the sparkplug wire connects to between the coil pack and cylinder!

NOTE: the coil pack is the starting point

For example, the V6 connections are:

Coil # goes to Cylinder #

1 to 1

2 to 4

3 to 2

4 to 5

5 to 3

6 to 6

Quiz for extra credit

On a front wheel drive vehicle, which bank of cylinders is easiest to reach: Bank 1 or Bank 2?

Go forth and good-wrenching!