Grey Fergie woes

[mike the vet]

Trying to get a grey fergie that has been sat for a long time. It has the continental engine which turns over fine. New electrics and plugs etc. and sparks on all plugs. Have put on a different carb. with one I know works from another fergie. All I get is some backfire from air inlet but it refuses to start up. Any polite suggestions about timing, valves etc. Thanks,Mike.

 

[Mursal]

A wee bit of petrol in the plug holes, a very small amount, mind. Crank over by hand (ignition off) just incase you over do it. If still no joy, we'll then do the ignition timing. Do it outside or at least have a fire extinguisher handy (backfiring). Even a squirt of engine oil overnight in the plug holes

 

[agrimax]

Are you sure the plug leads are in the correct order on the distributor? Unless someone has messed with the distributor, no 1 lead should be on top left, then no 3 bottom left, no 4 bottom right and no 2, top right. Firing order is 1342 and the rotor arm turns anti clockwise. If this doesn't help, you may still need to determine where No1 actually is on the distributor, if someone has messed with it before, but we can come back to that. I have one here that would backfire violently and it was for the above reason. Leads were put on ( old ones were missing) in the proper original position. Had to move them all one hole anticlockwise for it to go.

 

[TripleSix]

As above.
Check timing.

Verify No1 at tdc and the rotor arm is pointing to No1
Fit plug leads in the correct order

 

[TripleSix]

1 3 4 2

 

[Harrysfergie]

I'm sure you have checked this but are you definitely getting fuel through, also when you say electrics replaced, a lot of the small distributor parts can be poor quality, may be worth looking at. Are all electrical connections tight I have a standard engined TE20 that refused to start and spun over after going through a lot of above options turned out an earth lead from distributor body to coil had come loose/broken in the connector, crimped on a new connector and away it went.