8V wont start (now i feel like part of the club)

[sik@efuct.com (rhys)]

so im putting in my new spark plug wires (off of ebay, blue ones, i've seen em for sale somewhere before). were a little hard to get on, but they all fit, except the one end that goes to the little cylinder on the firewall. i had to take a screw out and turn it to fit it on. well a wire that was grounded to the screw came off, no biggy. then the OTHER end came off too.

it was gettin dark and i couldnt see where it came off (im assuming its the block ground or something) so i left it off. 
wont start. turns over and -just- about catches, but no go.
im guessing the ground wire is it, cause the wire on the little cylinder shaped thing we plugged back in, nothing else got changed.
where does it go and what does it do? what im wondering is how it stayed on so long if it came off with just the weight of the wire on it??!

scan of the wire.
http://sikk.freeservers.com/car/groundwire.jpeg

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