heheh i guess they stil cold then, you got any etc? may not be such a prob on early/aussie cars with solid mount subframes as you have a good earth between the subframe and body. but the earth strap for the engine is generally crap anyway, i have an extra between my bulkhead and clutch cover(in theory...if i had an engine.. .)

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speed costs....how fast do you want to go...

It could be that your spark plugs are just still wet - ie when you took them out to dry them (I hope you did that - over the flame in the stove and then check the gaps) the coil was still faulty or something else was wrong - now while trying to start the car again you might have flooded them again - so now even though whatever else was wrong might have been rectified the car still wont fire as the plugs are wet again.

putting in new points and condensor and then I will dry them. Thanks

Good idea..runs back upstairs

New coil, new condensor, nudda

Ran a secondary earth nuthin..

It will start one day

You still haven't told us whether you can see spark at the points and in turn at each plug....could be something else than spark and you are just wasting your time

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"Show me the Mini!"

no spark at the points and I cant get the HT to arc.

Willing to come around and help and help get some spark.

I've got just the ****** for the job, you bend over I'll light it.

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One should never skimp on the zip ties.

Nup, I got a pound of C4 and blew it up.
Im goingto leave it for a few days and think it through

by pass the ignition barell. my bet is that it is stuffed... EXACT same thing
happened to Emmelines car, 8v then 12v i was stuffing around for a dayt and a half..
then i tried putting a wire from the solenoid to the coil, and all was good in the world.. you will probably find that the wires at the bottom of your ignition barrell are farked up.

Emms car went without a drama (until the night that i fixed it some twits decided that she would look better on her side...)

BTW all these symptoms will happen if there is an unfused short circuit in the ignition circuit - most likely culprit is a tachometre (if fitted) as it shorts out on the negative side of the coil and the coil wont function - make sure the tacho isnt connected the wrong way around and isnt out when cranking the car up. Also make sure you didnt put the dizzy in the wrong way around.

Otherise go back to basics eliminating every possibility: you can even unhook everything from both sides of the fuse box to make sure you isolate the ignition circuit.

Heres a sequence I'd use:
- Hookup the positive side of the coil to the fuse box or the starter solenoid (standrd gauge wire fused if you want)
- See if there is +12v on both the terminals.
- put a sparc plug in the HT lead from the coil (on the dizzy end of the HT lead) - hold it with pliers right to one of the head studs (hopefuly w/o thick paint on them). Get someone to crank the engine over see if there's sparc b/w plug and stud.
-OK at this point you know the coil is ok. otherwise test with a different HT lead and that'll tell you if the HT lead was gone or if its the coil
- Now put the car in 4th gear and release the handbrake. Reconnect the HT lead from the
- Remove the dizzy cap, rock the car backwards and forwards gently and make sure the points are sparking.
- Then replace the cap and test each of the HT leads from the dizzy - put a spark plug in each in turn and put it to the head stud - rock the car backwards and forwards and see if each of them is sparking with the stud. (this also tests the spark plugs)

This is all that is needed for ignition operation (assuming the dizzy is in the correct position - ie advance is set at least close to correctly.)

Now make sure petrol is pumping out of the fuel hose to the carb and there's not much else that can be wrong.

I thought BIAM said that he was seeing +12v on both sides of the coil at all times?

To me that means that the points aren't closing or aren't wired to the coil.

Here is what I would do:
1. pull the dizzy cap off so I could see the points
2. turn the engine over by hand until the points are closed
3. turn on ignition. One side of coil should be 12v, other 0v.
4. Pull the 12v side off coil, and tap it back on it's connector to see if I could get a spark out of the coil.

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"Life is not like a box of chocolates... it's more like a jar of jalapenos. Whatever you do today, may burn your arse tomorrow."

Today I tore all the wiring out and ran new wiring. Much better now.

I now have spark from the coil
Spark at the points
Spark at the sparks
Timing is shot.

So once I time it we should be business

Thanks to everybody that contributed for what was the most frustrating experience for me ever associated with a car.

Assuming the Dissy isn't 180 degrees out

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"Show me the Mini!"

Bloke
Tell me you know how to time a motor from scratch !!!

If not I will write a treatise from scratch - I have become an expert on timing motors that are 180 degree out.