Things are just going bad to worse!!!!

[GAZ W]

Everything seems to be against me at the momen wit getting the car back together and running , i am seriously getting p155ed off with things now , cant see it running for anothe few months .
Firstly, cant seem to get a spark from the coil and no ign light on the dash i have traced all wires and everything seems to be correct , after trying to start it i notice loads of oil on the floor , its coming from the oil cooler , that is located behind the radiator so the rad has to come off for about the 20th time , i have also got the servo and bracket back on today then come to refit the calipers and notice i have the struts on the wrong sides ( caliper would be sat at the front of the disc) , so i now have to take all the suspension back of and refit it the correct way around , this took me ****in ages to put on in the first place, istruggled like hell to get the tca's into the bottom of the strut on me own

will the struts separate from the TCA's easily enough? this is my biggest fear that the wont, and i will split the gaiter holding in the grease . if i have to get a separator on them is there a way of splitting them without fouling anything?

why the **** didnt i realise at the time i was putting them on the wrong sides

[dasadrew]

Don't panic - we've ALL been there and done it the hard way!

I invested years ago in a propper scissor-action ball joint splitter. NOT the wedge and hammer type and not the thumbscrew type. Believe me, it's been worth it's weight in gold. There's no chance of splitting the gaiters with it. And here's a tip to go with it: If the ball joint doesn't separate, leave the ball joint separator under presure, spray some WD40 around the joint and leave it over night. I managed to separate completely fused and rusty ball joints this way by repeating the process over a few days and continuously winding up the pressure.

I always find it easier to fit the ARB last, after aligning and loosely inserting the TCA attachments inner and outer. Then, a tip for fitting the anti roll bar into the TCA's. Wind a strong nylon rope around the ARB ends a few turns and tie it off. (To get an idea of what I mean, the ARB and the rope form a sort of bow - as in bow and arrow). Then put a stick or sawn off broom handle into the ropes and wind it up like a tourniquet. This completely comfortably pulls the ARB ends together and you can insert them into the TCA's at leisure.

Back to your coil - are the points adjusted correctly so that they open when the distributor cam moves past and close again afterwards? Rotor Arm in good nick and fitted tightly onto the distributor spindle? If the coil has one Low Tension terminal with 12V on it and the other has an earth, then when the earth is suddenly removed, a High Tension discharge via the HT lead MUST result unless either the coil is duff, or the laws of physics don't apply where you live.

[wiggyrs]

I invested years ago in a propper scissor-action ball joint splitter. NOT the wedge and hammer type and not the thumbscrew type. Believe me, it's been worth it's weight in gold

Hi Gaz i used one of these splitters and it didnt damage the rubber.
Give me a shout if you need to borrow it

[GAZ W]

Thanks dasadrew for those tips, the bow and arrow one sounds very good will give that a go

Martin

can i borrow that splitter please

[wiggyrs]

Just let me know when you need it mate.

[GAZ W]

could i collect it one evening this week?

[wiggyrs]

Yes mate.

[arron]

Couldn't be anything as simple as the wires on ar5e about face on the coil could it ? I think early cars did not have the terminal spades of different sizes hence the wires could be transposed.

I always use a trolley jack to help get my suspension bits back together.

[dasadrew]

... shouldn't make a difference methinks. Basically if one LT connection is connected to the battery 12V and the other is fixed to earth, and the HT is laid onto the engine block, then, when you sharply remove the earth cable from its earth, a discharge should spark across from the HT lead to the block.

I've never actually doe it this way, but, to eliminate the coil as a cause it might just be worth a try. No guarantees!

Also, disconnect the coil from the car circuits, then put a wire to positive and another wire with a 12V bulb in it to negative and the lamp should light up dimly. This should show if the coils primary windings are ok.

It's often useful to get back to basics: if there is compression (at the right time), fuel vapour, and a spark (at the right time) then some type of ignition will take place!

Try eliminating those problems one by one.