Bloody Range Rover

I know this topic will have been done to death, but any help would be great.

The rotor arm, dizzy cap, spark plugs and HT leads were all replaced last Thursday. Prior to this, the car was running alright, but the dizzy cap was on it's last legs so I thought I'd treat the big beastie and get a new one.

Anyway, put the new sparks in (Champion ones that came as part of the service kit), put the rotor arm in, new dizzy cap on and connected the leads as before. Now it's running, but it's rough as a badgers arse and then cuts out if you try and give it revs.

Followed everything the Rave manual says and still nothing. Even tried putting the old NGK plugs back in to see if maybe the Champion plugs were iffy and still the same thing. The starter is going but still nothing.

I've tried everything mentioned in the manual, other than that I'm lost. Anyone here who's a bit more mechanically minded have any ideas.

I'm guessing it's probably something simple, but I'm getting that bloody ratty with it now I'm probably missing it.

Did it run ok before u changed stuff?

Was told about lining the rotor arm up with the TDC (sure that's what it's called) at the crank. I can see the little metal lip at the crank, but I can't see any timing marks on the actual pulley itself.

From there I was told that if the rotor arm was pointing towards me and lined up with the timing mark then this was my number one mark. But if it was pointing the opposite way and lined up the timing mark then this would be number eight.

Does this make any sense to anyone, cause I'm lost and seriously stuck now since it's the only vehicle I have and need it to get the work tomorrow.

nathan5346 said:

Did it run ok before u changed stuff?

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It was running alright. I knew the dizzy cap was on it's last legs and maybe a couple of times in the morning it would take a couple of attempts to get it started. Other than that nothing drastic.

If it wuz ok before, Stick all the old stuff back on and assuming its ok eliminate stuff 1 by 1

But thinkin bout it if u changed the leads have you checked the firing order?

nathan5346 said:

But thinkin bout it if u changed the leads have you checked the firing order?

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I put the old rotor arm and dizzy cap back on along with the old plugs and still the same thing.

From clockwise I have the firing order at 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2 on the cap.

Just to clarify though, on the cylinder banks looking into the engine bay from the front, it's odd numbers on the passenger side and evens on the drivers side?

Hi.

Interestingly i have this evening changed the thermostat, moved acouple of the leads one at a time around the top hose to gain access to the stat bolts and when i put them back one at a time making sure they were all the way home it now won't start and there is a lingering smell of petrol !!!!!!

Your firing order is right going clockwise, evens on the left looking from in front of the car.

I am going to leave mine for a while as i'm sure it is flooded.


cheers nick.

Hi.

Turned out to be the little graphite contact in the top of the distributor cap....gave it a very gentle stretch and hey presto...

njh2 said:

Hi.

Interestingly i have this evening changed the thermostat, moved acouple of the leads one at a time around the top hose to gain access to the stat bolts and when i put them back one at a time making sure they were all the way home it now won't start and there is a lingering smell of petrol !!!!!!

Your firing order is right going clockwise, evens on the left looking from in front of the car.

I am going to leave mine for a while as i'm sure it is flooded.


cheers nick.

Click to expand...

I was sure I had flooded mine as well since there was that lovely smell of unleaded lingering in the air. Took out the plugs one at a time to check if it was indeed flooded but they were bone dry.

Call me daft, but I would take this too mean there's no fuel getting through, but when I turn the ignition I can hear the fuel pump kicking in and then it quietens down after about 10 seconds.

if it was fine before then its got to be something you have done, its not going to be fuel problem.

i would say its the dizzy cap or rotor arm thats the issue. assuming you have the leads on correctly that is!!

i'm sure one type of rotor is a pain and either works or doesnt. try thr old one!!!

On the old style distributor (rotary type) the HT leads had to run out to the plugs in a specific route other wise they used to cross fire cylinders.

Are you sure that you have routed the new leads correctly???

ZZR1200, do you know what the specific route is?

Did you test if the leads are making sparks at the plugs side? You can put the lead close to a chassis screw and have somebody crank the engine to see if sparks are coming out of it. I f you have sparks on all the lead then you have to verify that you put them in the right order. If you think that is too risky there are some devices to test the sparks too.

Got it working.

Stepped away from it a bit and went through everything and found one of the new leads was at fault, so I stuck on one of the old leads that was still in not bad condition and it seemed to work.

Good job :clap2: