08-01-2018, 10:31 PM
Thank you all for your excellent advice. Following Dave, Simon and John's suggestions I connected a plug directly to the coil, bypassed both low tension terminal wires and got a good fat spark. From there I narrowed it down to the distributor not switching the earth. Everything came apart again including this time removing the little curved strap which joins the points to the end of the condenser. I cleaned the base plate and all the terminals, replaced nuts and lock-washers with new and, once back together it works fine.
I don't quite understand why changing the base plate didn't cure it before but no matter. As a precaution I will replace the LT wire from the distributor back to the coil. In the meantime I took the car for a brief (and very chilly) run round the block. Smiling once again.
I don't quite understand why changing the base plate didn't cure it before but no matter. As a precaution I will replace the LT wire from the distributor back to the coil. In the meantime I took the car for a brief (and very chilly) run round the block. Smiling once again.