Well I was going to put this in "What I learnt today......", but there's more to it than just a one liner.
I spent Tuesday night trying to get my engine started without much luck. I made sure everything was connected properly (leads, hoses etc) and coolant, oil and fuel were all present. Starter motor turned fine and engine cranks smoothly without any fuss but there's no sign of life. I check for sparks at the plugs and there aren't any, and I track this down to the fact that my points aren't open and closing correctly. Half an hour later and having set up my timing by following the haynes manual, I've got sparks at all 4 cylinders.
At this point, the engine seems as if it wants to start, as it's coffing and spluttering, but it just won't kick into life. I take the Carburretor apart to make sure it's clean etc. and start to play around with the mixture setting. The signs are all good until I get a huge pop and almost a flame blowing back through the exhaust. I decide it's time to have rest and call it an evening.
Wednesday night was spent refitting and checking what I already had done the previous night but the engine still won't start.
Everyone I talked to at work yesterday said that it sounds as if the timing is out and I explain that I've set it up to the letter, but I'm told that it's possible to have the timing 180 degrees out without realising it. I'm fairly convinced that this isn't the case because I labelled all the leads when I took them off the spark leads in the first place. I also noted that it's not physically possible to fit my dizzy 180 degrees out.
Whilst sitting having my tea in the old folks home last night, it dawns on me that when I fitted the brand new distributor, I just swapped the leads one for one from the old cap the new one and just assumed that they were correct. Well I bet most of you can see what's coming next. I swapped leads 1 & 4, 2 & 3 so that in effect they were now 180 degrees out and hey presto, the engine bursts into life instantly. At this point, I don't know wether to congratulate myself or be angry that I missed something so fundemental!!
All I've got to now is get fit the front brakes, clutch cylinders, the rest of the electrics, the interior, the trim...................:S
DT_Xtremez_35:
