DIST WIRING 1.6 88 TOYOTA COROLLA

90% of the time it is the distributor or coil, are you sure you have a good distributor, the other thing would be the timing belt, is the dist spinning when you crank the engine? make sure the timing belt did not pop.

this car also uses an igniter , if i remember correctly, but they do not not go bad often but could be.

take #1 plug out bring the cylinder up on T.D.C.(top dead center) check timming marks making sure that it is T.D.C, on the firing stroke, look at rotor see if it is pointing at #1 on the cap,also check plug wires make sure they are on the right place on cap , and plugs,and check firing order
hope this helps!

check your ecm.how a bout fuel filter.

You have spark on the coil wire but not coming from the cap. You replaced the cap right. Did you replace the rotor too. Sometimes the rotor burn in the center and the spark goes right thru it in to the distributor shaft.

sugar in the gas

Did you hooks the the spark plug wires right. If these are not in the right order then you will have a misfire. If enough of them are out of place then you wont have enough fire to start the engine.

Replace the spark plugs and wires along with a distributor cap and rotor. Be careful to leave the old wires and plug wires connected to dist.cap, just remove dist. cap from the distributor and lay aside with plug wires on it then install rotor then new cap and proceed to replace each wire for cap and spark plug one at a time so you don't mix up the spark plug wire firing order. Cap laying to the side is used for reference purpose.

First thing is to ck for a spark, see if she has good spark. Next remove the cap and watch the rotor button as it turns, have someone crank the engine to see, looking for which direction. Next turn the engine by hand looking for any marks on the crankshaft pully. aligning any marks should be #1 or #4 piston firing position. you will have to do this trial and error. Next if your rotor buton turns to the left align the marks on your pully and put your # 1 plug wire at the port in the cap which the rotor button is pointing at, then next put the #3 plug wire in,next #4 and last in turn would be #2. The firing order is 1,3,4,2.which ever direction the rotor button turns. if it starts and runs ruff you are out of phase 180 degs. move the wires two ports in the cap as the rotor turns. 

Sounds like you have the firing order right but your off on the #1 on the distributer. Every time you get an explosion coming from the carb its misfiring. Find the #1 on dist and continue with firing order

make sure that the right cap goes to the right plug. they are specific to firing order.