Hi all,
So having spent some time this evening putting everything back together, checking and double-checking, I put on my best 'sexface' and turned the key.
Initially, car ran but sounded lumpy, like it was running on 2 or 3 cylinders.
I've done the timing on it (something I've done before with the 1.7 zetec) and although I was a bit paranoid, new plugs can do this so stuck the old spark plugs in. Car won't start at all now.
Checked the plugs, wet nose.
Immobiliser light goes out as per normal
All fuses look okay
Everything connected as it should be
Leads are on the right nodes on the coil pack, all secure on the plugs
At this point I thought that it can only be my timing. Yanked off my freshly well sealed cam cover :'( cracked the timing cover a little too...
used a long screwdriver in #1's spark plug hole to get a rough TDC (save stripping it all back down again) and the bar fits in the rear of the cams fine inkeye:
So it seems that the timing is done just fine too. This was a precaution as it's difficult to tell really if there's perhaps a little loss of compression, but having not heard it turn over for a few weeks i'm not sure what it normally sounds like anyway.
Anyone got even the foggiest what could be causing this? could the gearbox earth be this much of a bastard, as that's perhaps the only thing that could be even slightly off as I couldn't recall which bolt it goes back on so used one of the ones by the starter.
I'm stumped - very experienced with engines but short of stripping it down again (which I really don't want to do) I can't figure out what's gone wrong?
A very small part of me wonders if my initial attempts to undo the crank pulley (before I got the locking tool for the flywheel) might have meant I've disturbed a valve, but I only did it by hand so that seems really unlikely inkeye:
So having spent some time this evening putting everything back together, checking and double-checking, I put on my best 'sexface' and turned the key.
Initially, car ran but sounded lumpy, like it was running on 2 or 3 cylinders.
I've done the timing on it (something I've done before with the 1.7 zetec) and although I was a bit paranoid, new plugs can do this so stuck the old spark plugs in. Car won't start at all now.
Checked the plugs, wet nose.
Immobiliser light goes out as per normal
All fuses look okay
Everything connected as it should be
Leads are on the right nodes on the coil pack, all secure on the plugs
At this point I thought that it can only be my timing. Yanked off my freshly well sealed cam cover :'( cracked the timing cover a little too...
used a long screwdriver in #1's spark plug hole to get a rough TDC (save stripping it all back down again) and the bar fits in the rear of the cams fine inkeye:
So it seems that the timing is done just fine too. This was a precaution as it's difficult to tell really if there's perhaps a little loss of compression, but having not heard it turn over for a few weeks i'm not sure what it normally sounds like anyway.
Anyone got even the foggiest what could be causing this? could the gearbox earth be this much of a bastard, as that's perhaps the only thing that could be even slightly off as I couldn't recall which bolt it goes back on so used one of the ones by the starter.
I'm stumped - very experienced with engines but short of stripping it down again (which I really don't want to do) I can't figure out what's gone wrong?
A very small part of me wonders if my initial attempts to undo the crank pulley (before I got the locking tool for the flywheel) might have meant I've disturbed a valve, but I only did it by hand so that seems really unlikely inkeye: