01-01-2019, 05:58 PM
Thanks everyone, as ever some great thoughts and advice.
Well, short version is that I am up and running. Long answer is that I am not quite sure why and I hate those situations as they can happen again tomorrow.
Ruairidh: I did take the ignition lead off so it was completely disconnected. I was also using my old set of leads with the Bosch dissy, so a completely different set. I do have some new plugs but didn't change them.
So what did I do since my last post? Well, I added an additional earth lead from the dissy just to be sure, but this made no difference, not a hint of a start. Then I rechecked the Bosch dissy and decided that the points gap was a little small (about 8 thou) so reset it to 12 thou. I then redid rough timing by just putting thumb over 1 plug hole and setting by eye the points opening at TDC.
Then trying again it spluttered into life. I played with the timing a little more and it ran sweetly.
I then disconnected the ignition bypass lead and tried again and it started first time (it was of course warmer at this point).
Ran for a few minutes and all seems OK.
So from the first set up where nothing ran, the only thing different is the dissy (now Bosch, was Accuspark) and an extra dissy earth lead. Not forgetting that many leads have since been connected and disconnected, jogged etc.
But when I changed the dissy earlier today it made no immediate difference, so I have no evidence to determine it must have been the Accuspark dissy at fault.
So I am left pleased that it is running but frustrated, wondering if it will run in the morning.
It is of course possible that the Accuspark unit has failed and that the Bosch dissy was not set up well enough at the start, but I would not have thought that an 8 thou gap would have rendered it useless and I reset the timing 3 or 4 times with no luck, so don't see that I suddenly made an amazing change to my rough timing setting.
I think I will go through all leads etc to clean and remake joints to give me some peace of mind in case I have a simple bad joint that I jogged into being OK for the moment.
I will contact Accuspark to see what they suggest if there is a simple test I can do (wishful thinking I fear) as i am not inclined to refit it with lead changes etc.
Thanks again for everyone's help.
Andy
Well, short version is that I am up and running. Long answer is that I am not quite sure why and I hate those situations as they can happen again tomorrow.
Ruairidh: I did take the ignition lead off so it was completely disconnected. I was also using my old set of leads with the Bosch dissy, so a completely different set. I do have some new plugs but didn't change them.
So what did I do since my last post? Well, I added an additional earth lead from the dissy just to be sure, but this made no difference, not a hint of a start. Then I rechecked the Bosch dissy and decided that the points gap was a little small (about 8 thou) so reset it to 12 thou. I then redid rough timing by just putting thumb over 1 plug hole and setting by eye the points opening at TDC.
Then trying again it spluttered into life. I played with the timing a little more and it ran sweetly.
I then disconnected the ignition bypass lead and tried again and it started first time (it was of course warmer at this point).
Ran for a few minutes and all seems OK.
So from the first set up where nothing ran, the only thing different is the dissy (now Bosch, was Accuspark) and an extra dissy earth lead. Not forgetting that many leads have since been connected and disconnected, jogged etc.
But when I changed the dissy earlier today it made no immediate difference, so I have no evidence to determine it must have been the Accuspark dissy at fault.
So I am left pleased that it is running but frustrated, wondering if it will run in the morning.
It is of course possible that the Accuspark unit has failed and that the Bosch dissy was not set up well enough at the start, but I would not have thought that an 8 thou gap would have rendered it useless and I reset the timing 3 or 4 times with no luck, so don't see that I suddenly made an amazing change to my rough timing setting.
I think I will go through all leads etc to clean and remake joints to give me some peace of mind in case I have a simple bad joint that I jogged into being OK for the moment.
I will contact Accuspark to see what they suggest if there is a simple test I can do (wishful thinking I fear) as i am not inclined to refit it with lead changes etc.
Thanks again for everyone's help.
Andy
Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think!