SHADOW II, POOR RUNNING UPDATE.
Car seems to be running fine at the moment. Went through the fuel/air mixture adjustments again on the Carbs, by making the mixture so week the car would not start. I slowly turned the adjusting screw until the car started and stayed running. I then turned the second Carb mixture screw until there was a slight increase in tickover revs and went back to the first Carb screw and turned it clockwise and anti-clockwise, until I found the ideal sound and smooth tickover. I then blipped the go faster peddle to see if the revs drop down to low, to a stall situation and if it does, slightly richen the mixture again to an acceptable tickover level, without the revs dropping.
Now, while all this is a worthwhile procedure for anyone who is confident about working on their car, I cannot say for sure that this is what has cured 'my' particular fault.
Prior to all this, I had put a second spare set of 'HT leads' on the car to sort out a similar problem some years ago by trying to determin that a lead was not faulty. This second set of leads are still on the car and laying loose, but easily available if I need to try one. Now I know that if you lay two identical leads down in the engine bay, sod's law kicks-in and makes you pick up the wrong lead. I was fully aware of this happening If I was not careful where I lay the lead down while I take out a plug and check the gap etc,
During this most recent attempt to try and sort my problem, I carefully placed the 'in-use' lead in a place to be sure it went back on the plug, and it did, but when I traced it back to the distributor cap, it wasn't there, so tracing the lead from the cap back towards the plug, confirmed the lead was not the same one!
At some point during my attempts to sort the problem, I had accidentily put a spare 'not in-use' lead onto one of the plugs.
Was I the victim of my own lack of checking certain basic procedures, I don't know, but it seems I was and driving around on only 7-cylinders!
So, be careful at all times, it is very easy to miss something or not check something thoroughly.
Time permitting, I will relay various car based stories onto this forum, not only about my car, but other cars, as I used to work in rescue and recovery.
Thanks to the guys who have replied to this posting, but as I said earlier, the car is running fine at the moment and all it seems to have been, was a plug not firing because it was not connected to the correct lead...!
Regards,
GHOSTHUNTER.