Are sure all four are firing? Are they all reseated properly? What did you use to clean the leads connectors?

Push the silicone rubber "boots" back on both ends of the leads,
then fit the leads - you can see that you've pushed them in properly then.

Then slide the boots back down. I'll bet you've just got one lead not pushed home.

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Too many cars, and too little time.

need to clarify some terminology here...

distributor points are where the thin wires go to from the coil, when you take the distributor cap off they are in the distributor, there is a red plastic part that is pushed up against the squarish shaft coming out of the motor - the red plastic thing is part of the "contact breaker set" or "points"

the 'points' you cleaned are the distributor cap contacts, and yeah, they're often covered in corroded white crap where the spark constantly jumping through them breaks down the metal...

it sounds very much like you have a poor connection with one of the spark plug leads. Just check each one while the engine is running by firmly grabbing the lead where it connects to the spark plug and pull it off - you might get a bit of a shock through your arm, but you'll get used to it after a little while. The one(s) that don't have any effect on how the motor is running are the ones that are causing trouble - check they're connected to the distributor cap properly - you might have just bumped one off, if you took them all off the cap when you cleaned the contacts, then check you have them in the right order 1-3-4-2, but I doubt you've done that...

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

will do

thanks heaps

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a girlfriend would be cheaper

Going anti-clockwise

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Roads need more corners
A Deluxe(CG13DE), 2 Clubbies(998 and 1275) and 2 Morris 1100Ss

good point - used to get me all the time....

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

i replaced the wires to the distributor cap the same as i pulled them off, but just to make sure how does the 1-3-4-2 concept work? so then i can test if all four are firing properly

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a girlfriend would be cheaper

OK, standing at the front of the car looking at the distibutor:

- the lead at about 1 (or 2) o'clock position goes to the #1 cylinder
(the cylinder closest to the radiator)
- the next lead (anticlockwise) goes to #3 cylinder
- next lead after that goes to #4 cylinder
- next lead after that goes to #2 cylinder

but if you took them off 1 at a time, you can't have mixed them up & most likely it wouldn't even run. You probably just have one lead that is not connected properly or is damaged.

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Too many cars, and too little time.

Gets a little difficult but here goes...

1. First you need to find TDC Top Dead Centre on no 1 cylinder (closest to the radiator) on the compression stroke this will be when both valves are close (rockers are raised).

2. this is around about when no 1 cylinder should be firing, take your distributor cap off and note which contact and lead the rotor button is pointing to it should be pointing to the lead going to no 1 cylinder. If not then change it so it does but make sure you have no 1 cylinder on the compression stroke (both valves closed rockers up).

3 From here it is easy the dristributor rotates anti clockwise so the next lead anti clockwise should go to no 3 spark plug the next one after that is goes to no 4 and finaly the last one goes to no 2.

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Roads need more corners
A Deluxe(CG13DE), 2 Clubbies(998 and 1275) and 2 Morris 1100Ss

Provided to dizzy drive dog is not out by 180 degrees.... Am I being difficult

And by finding top dead centre you can get the timing close enough staticly that you will be able to start it and after that you can time it using a timing light.

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Roads need more corners
A Deluxe(CG13DE), 2 Clubbies(998 and 1275) and 2 Morris 1100Ss

ok so i ended up removing the grill so i could see distributor properly, all the leads were fine , but i did remove the rubber boots so that i could put them in properly so its working fine now.

although i unplug all the leads one by one, and all four affected the way it was running, so im stumped to know why that connection point from the lead is so clean

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a girlfriend would be cheaper

ohh tand thanks heaps u guys for the help, the only things i know how to do are the ones ive fixed so thats another one to the list!

thanks

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a girlfriend would be cheaper

if all for leads when pulled off affected tyhe running, then you should be working properly!

hope you are running well now, remember to check the points gap as well as the plug gap. t check a manual for your particular model, but for me, points gap is 0.015 inch (i think???) and plug gap is 0.025 inch

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78 Leyland Mini - Prince