Part 1 of the Engine change introduced the car, his dead engine and us getting to the point where we had to change the bolts holding the clutch slave cylinder on as they were too long and were fouling the flywheel. We attempted the first start on the engine and nothing happened…

CRW_2840So, the engine didn’t start. Ok, this is occasionally to be expected. Perhaps we hadn’t connected electrics properly or the gaps on the spark plugs weren’t right. Perhaps we weren’t getting fuel into the bores. Perhaps the timing was out.

In conversation with a mate that popped over we discovered that the roller-tip rockers were entirely wrong for the engine. They had been sold to me as 1.5:1. Ratboy took one look and said they were 1.7:1 rollers. This was confirmed by a few people who said that the purple roller tips are indeed 1.7:1 and are entirely unsuitable for a 998cc engine. Arse. Off they came and a standard set went back on, gaps got set and we tried again. Still nothing.

For three evenings (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday), all day Saturday and a couple of hours on Sunday we chased our own arses, diagnosing, testing, changing parts and scratching our heads. Here’s what we did (in nor particular order):

  • Checked that fuel was getting to the float chamber on the carb. No problem, the fuel pump’s working and the float was not stuck.
  • Removed the dash pot and checked for blockages in the jet and the feeder hole from the float chamber. A little crud came out but nothing worth worrying about.
  • Check the spark. Weak. Weaker than a static shock from a deflated balloon. Bugger. Change the solenoid, coil, rotor arm, dizzy cap and condenser. Try again. Still nothing.
  • Changed the starter motor. We killed one trying to start the engine.
    Made lots of phone calls. Two suggestions came forward:

    • 1. Change the dizzy. Phil’s current one had Lumenition electronic ignition. This could be buggering up our testing process. We borrowed an older points distributor that was known good and put that in. Still nothing.
    2. Check the timing. As we hadn’t had the engine apart except to change the flywheel there should be nothing wrong with the timing.

  • Check the electrical connections again. Saturday evening I realised that the solenoid had a connector missing. A couple of quick phone calls secured a replacement.
  • Repeat the above twice.

CRW_2835 Sat in front of the car on Sunday afternoon, points dizzy in place, all electrics in their correct places, fuel getting to the carb and the car still not starting we were scratching our heads. Nothing else for it, it had to be the timing.

Locating top dead centre (TDC) on number one piston the rotor arm on the distributor should be pointing towards number one cylinder. It wasn’t.

We had located TDC and had accounted for approximately 8 degrees retard. The rotor arm was pointing straight down. What the hell?? We hadn’t adjusted the timing at all. Why would that be out? Then realisation dawned.

Phil and Scott were cleaning the engine ready to paint it. Phil wanted to clean the bottom of the sump. They tipped the engine forwards, cleaned the sump and stood the engine up again. We thought nothing more of it. Now, there’s a dog dear that sits in the gearbox. The distributor locates into the dog gear enabling it to turn at the right time to provide the spark to the appropriate spark plug.

When Phil and Scott tipped the engine forward to clean the sump the dog gear disengaged, floated about a bit, went down the pub and got back pissed. We didn’t realise. When we put the dizzy back on it located approximately 70 degrees out. This meant that the spark would never get to the plug at the right time and the engine would never fire.

We re-located the dog-gear (a bloody fiddly job as it has helical teeth which you need to account for when re-fitting), put the dizzy back on and checked that the rotor arm was pointing at number one cylinder (we still had TDC.) Once again we checked all the connections. Scott got in the car, pumped the accelerator a couple of times and turned the key. It only went and bloody started! Sounded sweet as a nut too!

Time for a victory dance, a can of coke and a celebratory cigarette!

When You’re fed up with playing “Mini”, play your guitar instead!

CRW_2806

Part three will have the last bit of tickling, lessons learnt, and tools we needed.