so i was doing my friend a favor and replacing his distributor cap and rotor, plain and simple, i fu*ked up by not marking the rotor and now the timing is off, i cant find ANYTHING online about the rotor and where it needs to be, all i found was that the number 1 cylinder has to be top dead center and that was it i've taken it apart nearly 4 times trying to figure this out, someone please help me. it does back fire but just barely

 

Make sure that the #1 cylinder is at TDC on the COMPRESSION stroke. Remember that the crankshaft goes around twice for every rotation of the distributor.
There may be a raised "1" at the terminal on the cap for the #1 cylinder wire. It may be on the old cap if not on the new one. The rotor should point toward that terminal.

 

This is the best thing I could find, I assume the 96-99 2.5L V6 is the same.

 

when i set it on TDC the rotor was sitting at number one on the cap, i probby need to do this again this care just been a nightmare for me

 

The only thing I can say is to just check and double and triple check your wires...where they're going, and where they're hooked up to. Don't be afraid to take a break for a few, fresh eyes are better than tired and frustrated ones. TRUST me. For instance...

I had a coil crap out on a GM 3800 V6. No big deal.

Replaced the coil, and was having all sorts of terrible problems with back firing and preignition...sometimes it was stalling so hard it was chirping the serpentine belt. I fought with it for the better part of 4 hours, checking plugs, checking spark, etc. and finally concluded that I'd somehow caused the timing chain to skip a tooth during one of the times it had stalled. I went inside, chilled for a bit, came back out, and noticed within 5 minutes that I'd swapped two wires on the coilpack. I corrected them, and the car ran great.

I wish you luck, and don't give up. It's just a machine.