April 27th. Gertie's alive.............but poorly. :(

As reported in the last blog, my mate Dave was coming round to sort out some wiring for me. He adapted the starter motor wiring to suit the new pre-engaged high torque starter motor for me and also wired in the electric fuel pump. We originally decided to wire the electric fuel pump to the ignition, but have since decided it will be better going through a separate switch. I also ended up distracting him with some other small jobs, so we didn't manage to get everything done and another session was arranged.
A few nights later Dave returned and started work on wiring up the oil cooler temperature gauge and other items as well, so all is looking good in that department. However, when it came to getting Gertie started things didn't quite go to plan.

After trying various different methods of trying to get a spark at the plugs, we came to the conclusion that the sensor for the lumenition in the distributor had given out. God knows why, it was working fine in the yellow car, but for some reason it doesn't like Gertie!
So we stole the distributor out of Gertie's old engine and went back to points and condensor. We at least managed to get a spark now,  but Gertie still wouldn't fire. We also had petrol into the carbs, but she still wouldn't run. With time now getting on we called it a night and ventured indoors for a cuppa.

Friday night was the next time I managed to get to have a play and luckily another mate of mine (yes I do have two!) Andy called in on his way to work. (I bet he wished he hadn't) After much investigation and removal of the distributor again, we came to the conclusion that the drive cog that links the oil pump drive to the distributor drive (and runs off of the cam) wasn't quite in the right place. With this removed and refitted Gertie burst into life, albeit not particularly well. The engine was cut quickly to repair a split heater hose that was spraying water everywhere and then work resumed. Gertie was starting and running easy enough, but still not as it should be. I know with it's new highly tuned engine that it wont run as smooth as the old 2 litre unit (particularly on tickover) but she's definitely running far more erratically than she should be. Work will resume this weekend.