This is a typical behavior for people affected with acute LandRoveritis.
So last week I decided to “upgrade” my contact breaker points to an electronic version.
This is the story:
1. Some 8 months ago I replaced the distributor with a brand new one. Worked brilliantly
2. Three weeks ago changed breaker points and adjusted timing – again with great success and clear improvements in power etc.
3. Hoping to improve even more I though an upgrade to contact breaker less system would be nice.
4. Instead of just upgrading the “old” one I bought a brand new distributor and converted it to an electronic one – the advantage was to have a almost new distributor as a spare (in addition to the other older spare distributors)
5. Installing was a bit trickier than I thought as the positioning of the distributor was different than the old one
6. Meaning the timing work took – time
7. After some fiddling it worked – but not as good as before
8. Next morning car would not start
9. This drained the somewhat weak battery
10. I saw this as an opportunity to order a brand new battery – as this was not strictly needed and I told myself it only made sense if was an upgrade – so I bought the biggest possible battery
11. Started installing the battery – as its an “upgrade” its bigger than the old one
12. This means the metal frame that holds the battery in the battery tray is too small
13. Start modifying this frame by breaking it and welding it back together
14. Realize its needs a new lick of paint so get some good black paint and repaint it
15. This makes other parts in the engine bay look a bit sorry but decide to sort that on a later stage
16. With the new battery I continued fiddling with the timing - this results in a huge backfire/explosion that completely destroys the 6 month old silencer.
17. Wanting to order a new silencer I realized I could upgrade it to a stainless steel one
18. As only upgrading the silencer made little sense I order a completely new stainless steel system
19. While waiting for the exhaust I realize that to take advantage of potential benefits from the new contact breaker less system - a new ignition coil would be good
20. Ordered a new ignition coil and new ignition leads as well
21. Realize that in order to install the new exhaust I better replace all the exhaust attachment things as well
22. Ordered a full set of all things necessary to install exhaust system including new brassnuts for manifold and stainless nuts and bolts for exhaust
23. Install new stainless steel exhaust, new ignition coil and ignition leads.
24. Start the engine and continue adjusting the timing being mindful of not destroying the new silencer, go for a test drive
25. Its not as good as it was before and still requires some further tuning
26. Will continue tuning this weekend and hope to be somewhere close to where I was about two weeks ago
27. If not I will have to revert to the old distributor with contact breakers