Hi all. So today I hooked up the battery to check if the circuits and looms I've made were working as intended. As a precaution I pulled the fuses to the Edis and Megajolt as at this stage I only wanted to test the operation of the relay circuit. This checked out ok so I replaced the Edis fuse,pulled no1 plug lead and connected it to a spare sparkplug clamped to an engine bracket. I cranked the engine to test for a spark and was rewarded by a healthy blue spark. At this point I didn't need to have the Megajolt powered up,at least not until the engine has run without it. The Edis system is capable of running the engine at a constant 10 deg advance as a limp home feature,so it makes sense to make sure all is well before adding in the complication of the Megajolt. I'll get the engine running on Edis alone and then replace the 3amp Megajolt fuse and load up a map. On the subject of spark,you'll only usually get one if the vr sensor is connected with the correct polarity. On the internet a search for vr sensor polarity will throw up contradictory information as not all vr sensors have the same polarity. In my own case the information I found for the sensor I was using didn't match what I was finding on testing I.E they were telling me I had it connected the wrong way round. As an experiment I popped the terminals out of the housing and reversed them. There was no spark. The moral of all this is if you don't get a spark,swap the vr sensor wires around and try it again.
I was now at the stage where I was ready to fire up the engine (Edis only) so with everything in place I turned the key. The engine coughed and spluttered a little as it started to pull the fuel through and was right on the point of firing properly when there was a very strong smell of petrol. As I looked to see what was wrong I was met with the sight of the front carb wetting it's pants all over the floor. An O ring on the jet adjuster had failed and fuel was pouring out of the float bowl. That ended the days entertainment,and it became painfully obvious that my carbs are not in tip top shape. A service kit from Burlen Fuel Systems is on the way to sort this out. It was a case of one step forward and one step back which is very frustrating. I bored my girlfriend with my tale of woe and got told "what do you expect if you're going to play with old cars" Indeed.
Regards,Dave