Reasonably epic thread.

Thanks, not without everyone's help!

Cheers, I didn't get deep enough into the dizzy to find any drain holes. I left the plate the weights rest on in there and just had a fiddle with the obvious moving parts. It wasn't too complicated, just a pair of asymmetrical weights on the cam and a pair of small springs. Pulled the cam...

OK will do, one thing I'm not short of is engine oil. :)

Ah, well it does turn as you say, but it has a tendency to stick. There's quite a lot of grit floating about in there, I've oiled it with sewing machine oil but it hasn't freed it up much. If I do take it to bits I'll take plenty of photos of the assembly to give myself a decent chance of...

Cheers guys, that's the next job then. Bought one, as soon as you realise you don't need the part from the 24V manual it starts to get a lot cheaper.

Ah thanks, that's something new too look into. I haven't checked the condenser, that's the small capacitor in the distributor isn't it? Is there a simple way to test if it's still good? I don't have a multimeter, etc. It does give quite a strong spark across the points. I shall get to Googling...

It keeps accelerating but it develops a nasty sound. I guess that could be a missfire, but it's quite violent. Nothing like the little puffy missfires it does at idle. I've heard it twice and backed off pretty quickly, I didn't really have a good listen. It was a kind of rapping, popping banging...

Well I advanced it until it started pinking, then backed it off. Max speed is now 50MPH or thereabouts, it will creep above 50 but starts making some nasty noises, could be the bodywork trying to shake itself off I suppose. Before resetting the timing it was more like 60MPH (with a bit of...

Righto, finally set the timing, only took me five attempts... Took it for a run, it's a touch retarded at TDC - no pinking in any gear, but couldn't get past 50 (although the speedo kept trying to jump to 60 on principle). Tuned idle after it had warmed up; needed a lot more than 1 1/2 turns out...

I've done most of that in my blundering around. Ripped the dizzy apart, rewired it all etc, did the points and gaps, checked the tappets. I think I have the timing off at the mo - tis 6deg BTDC and now I find it should be TDC on my engine. :s Maybe when I get dizzy seated properly, the timing...

It's a slot. The distributor and I came to an agreement, something along the lines of if it went in I wouldn't hit it with the big rubber mallet. In the end I had to loosen off the fine adjustment nut, tighten the pinch nut and then tighten the fine adjustment nut to get it all seated properly...

It was right on the tip of the dipstick, with the consistency of tar, when I picked it up. :s I seriously doubt they measured the amount, maybe they did. I'll measure it in the next time I change it, which should be quite soon. Then I'll know about the levels on the stick. Oops. :o I'll...

It was totally fine under throttle, just when going back to idle at roundabouts etc. It doesn't need choke to start, so I haven't used it. I am pretty sure it isn't stuck on open chock though. :$ Actually, the only time I did use it was to get it started after it kept stalling. Set my timing...

Timing marks weren't in the same place they are in the manual. :'/ Had to stick a screwdriver in piston #1 to find TDC, and then a tiny notch in the starter pulley showed itself, as did a bright mark from whoever did the timing before. Not entirely sure what the bright spot denotes. I was...

Cool, I'll give it a blast. Service manual gives figures so I'll plug em in. Thanks. Electric shocks *sigh* I'd better do it with the ignition off or there'll be an "idiot kills himself with ignition coil" story in the local rag.

is it as dirty as this?

:focus: :D Well serviced the dizzy gaps, oiled it etc. I did ham hand it, took me ages to unbugger my dizzy and cabling. :der: Runs now though, just need to get someone with some art to get the tuning right. Cheers for all the advice. Cue "omg threw a piston" post in a couple of days.

hehe. :) Yeah I know a lot of guys swap them out, I assumed it was just because of parts availability and not anything to do with running efficiency. There are lots of guides on how to do it and I guess it's pretty simple to revert from afterwards. It is currently very original. :o What are...

Thanks for all the advice guys. I'll give the dizzy a work over today when my hangover abates. :D The car is totally standard, using a stock Zenith, original ignition etc. I don't know why it doesn't use the vacuum advance mechanism, but I'm 100% sure it is not part of the design. The only...