timing woes

["Tim Shaw" <tashaw@domain.elided>]

Hi,

	I've just completed renewing my water pump and replacing the inlet gaskets
and thought I would share my adventures! I removed the distributor after
marking it's position, to make access easier, but I didn't bother putting no
2 cylinder at TDC. Of course when I replaced it the car wouldn't start, so I
had to retime it. I followed the instructions in the manual, but noticed
that the rotor arm didn't point at the lead for no 2 cylinder - it was
completely opposite it. After much head scratching, and resorting to rimmers
catalogue for the nice picture of a distributor and leads, I finally worked
out that someone had actually replaced the distributor 180 degrees out, put
all the leads in the correct places for it to run, and had actually painted
a mark on the pulley 180 degrees out!

I have now put everything back the way it should be, and it ran first time.
The puzzling thing is that the guy I bought the car from used a mechanic to
do all the work on the car, so the garage must have gone to all the bother
of doing it! Beats me why.

My only concern now is whether or not anything else on the car is 180
degrees out!

Cheers,

Tim Shaw
Brighton, UK
1974 mkII Auto