Having purchased the above items I soon realised that the existing leads would now be too short to route through the new trunking and clamp. I rang the distributor doctor to supply me with his best HT lead and in the end also ordered on his advice NGK plug caps with cap boots (for both ends) and to top it off some numbered bands to make it easier to identify both ends are correctly positioned - for when pushing the HT's through the trunking it can be easy to make a mistake in cutting to incorrect length/wrong positions etc. Also on his advice to solder the HT ends to the copper discs.
One of those nice jobs to do on a lazy Saturday, not too taxing, but nice to get right (after printing off various reference on how to route the HT within the V of the head). I also found a poor connection from the CB side of the coil and therefore fitted a new end and after a few hours careful work stood back in admiration and ready to get the car on the ramp and do a final check on the timing with a strobe and finally set the carbs with knowing the electrical side was all in good shape.
What should have been a late afternoon run was swiftly halted - car would not start! (usually starts readily) anyway to cut a long story short (that saw it getting dark before I figured out how to ensure she would fire up)! it turns out that whoever set this up previously ran the numbers on the cylinder head counting the 'coil end' of the cylinder head as no 1 and not as it should be no 6. After swapping all the leads around on the distributor cap - some now too long, some now too short messing up all my careful cutting
If you are still awake dear reader! would I be correct in thinking the distributor drive gear could be incorrectly positioned on the crankshaft - but don't see how due to the key way position? (although I think not because with the distributor in the correct position (to the manual i.e. vacuum end toward rear of engine) the rotor arm is pointing toward no 1 also as shown in the manual) so how come the firing order is in reverse?
To get the engine started the HT leads are now fitted to the distributor cap positions as follows: 1 and is now 6, 5 is now 2, 3 is now 4 and 6 is now 1 - how can this be? it feels as though it must be some kind of incorrect assembly of gears in the engine itself?





