Well, the last couple of visits have been frustrating to say the least.
I'd intended to stretch the full wiring loom out to check stuff out whilst it was out of the car but never got around to it, guess it being sat in a box for a year or two wasn't long enough!
Upshot was that there's a load of wires, added to non original wires, that I really don't know where they should go to..
Once the car was plumbed in for all fluids a start up attempt was made but although the car cranked over nicely there was no spark and no activity from the fuel pump....great..
Got the fuel pump going this last Wednesday afternoon having found the missing wiring but no matter what I tried the spark was missing. Decided that a large relay that was in amongst the loom near the coil must be the issue, the fact that I couldn't find the relay to be more accurate! A good search was called. Nothing found...
So last night I set about scanning the workshop manual to see where all the wires related to ignition went, from the coil and ignition amplifier block to the distributor and inside the car to the ECU. Made myself a little wiring diagram on an A4 sheet so I could easily trace each wire.
On testing all the wires for continuity all seemed well until I tried the wires running to the ECU, one wire from the ignition amplifier to the ECU had to connection at all, must be a break somewhere in the loom. Rather than peel all the loom apart I ran a makeshift wire inside the car and joined it all up.
Still no spark! Damn, this is getting annoying, what the hell is going on.
Then I noticed, it might help if I plugged the ECU back in!
Try again, at long last a spark!
Next to check fuel was getting to the injectors, cracked off the pipe at the fuel rail and no fuel, damn again!
Stupidly I'd fitted the fuel pipes at the pump the wrong way around, a quick swap and run the pump and hey presto, fuel...…...loads of it squirting out of the new filter at the connection
Swapped out the copper sealing washers and that stopped it.
Then noticed the fuel pump was covered in fuel inside the car, a split in the O ring! Can I please catch a break
Luckily I'd got a spare pump with an old connector still on it so swapped out the O ring and all well again.
Finally connected everything back up again engine wise and cranked it ion hope....it fired up straight away and settled to a lovely idle!!
At last, a running engine.
Had some funny readings on the gauges though, fuel tank insisting it was nearly full despite me putting just 3 gallons in, water temp climbing fast, no voltage reading....
Water thing was a worry but everything looked well engine wise so knew it wasn't drastic.
Turns out the whole dash gauges assembly has only one earth wire for all the gauges and warning lights, which of course wasn't earthing so all the gauges were getting mixed signals with the power to it trying to get out any way it could.
A new earth wire made up and all gauges working properly.
A big step, but a lengthy one to take, but a big step at last.
I can now start to think about getting the rest of the wiring sorted then get the wings, bonnet and lights on
Did get it to move forwards and back under its' own power again, although I've still to finalise all the brake pipes so no rides around the yard just yet, but it's getting closer