Gavin came round this morning to help with getting this bloody Cortina running properly again. Some (very expensive) Magnecor spark plug leads had arrived during the week and also a (very expensive) 'Flame thrower' ignition coil.
With all this top quality equipment fitted, we were severely disappointed to find that we had the same problems as the Saturday before. For some reason, no matter what we did, we just couldn't get a spark at number one spark plug. This was even after changing the distributor cap, rotor arm, plug lead, spark plug and adjusting the timing.
I then decided to remove the distributor completely (Which had been fitted 180 degrees out) and set the engine up again from scratch. So with the engine set to the compression stroke on number one cylinder, another distributor was fitted and this time set in the correct position. We also swapped the Pertronix electronic ignition module out of the old distributor onto the replacement distributor. (These cost about £180, so I wasn't going to discard it.)
With everything in place and set up as per workshop manual, we also replaced the spade terminals on the electrical connections just to be doubly sure.
We then started the car up to find it running a lot better and almost as it should. The next move was to fine tune the ignition timing with a strobe timing light which then had it running perfect.
This car has been a pain in the arse for the past couple of weeks, but it now seems to be running as it should again. All in all, a very good mornings work.
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