I have had this. The fuel is pumping, there is a spark but no go. People may suggest failed warm up regulators and other stuff to do with the fuel and they are fair enough suggestions, but they have one thing in common insofar as their collective failure is nearly always after a period of slow deterioration, and you will have had plenty of early signs that something is amiss, manifesting itself as ever worsening starting, poor cold performance, poor fuel economy and generally rough running; as you make no mention of this I am going to plump for the ignition module, situated on the nearside front wing. One of its internal components has either failed or the connections are dirty, but probably the former. I speak from experience. I had just left the garden centre in High Wycombe and got 400 yards up the road. The engine died and no amount of churning of the starter could coax the engine back to life. Using the Sherlock Holmes method of deduction, which states that when you have removed the impossible, whatever remains is the truth, no matter how improbable, reason it thus; Has the cambelt failed, or has the position of the camshaft, relative to the crankshaft changed? Probably not. Is there sufficient fuel? Yes. What sets the fuel alight? A spark, which we have. So, we have oxygen and fuel insofar as the camshaft is working correctly; if there is any combustible material in the cylinder, when the spark occurs, the cylinder must fire. The fact that it and all the others don't collectively go bang 15 times a second, i.e 900 rpm, means that when the spark occurs there is nothing to catch fire. You would have noticed if the plug leads had come off, or the distributor was loose, furthermore you would have felt a slow deterioration as the whole thing started to go out of adjustment, or started to break down if it was the main plug lead. Thus, the spark, which is triggered by the distributor but controlled by the module is occurring at the wrong time, probably due to an internal capacitor taking too long to charge up before discharging through the coil. If, during the attempts to start the engine, it fired and ran backwards briefly ( I have seen my engine do this so I know it is popssible, and I can only speculate as to how the engine gets is fuel, because the airflow through the metering unit is reversed.), it is almost conclusive proof of out of phase ignition timing. There is the remote possibility that the module is generating a dishcarge voltage that results in a spark of less than half a joule which is insufficent to light the fire, but either way, it traces back to the module. Forget failed induction coils in the distributor body. Ive been down the whole route refusing to accept that the module is at fault. I honestly suggest temporarily swapping his module for a known good one to prove a point and establish a solution which you can act upon. If you do prove it to be a failed module I have one which I bought from Lodge sports that has been in my shed in a sealed container to keep the moisture out, and you can have it for what I paid which is £75, or you can source your own. You may find one cheaper on the auction site but will it work? If you investigate the price of a new one from an OPC you will find the price to be close to, or in excess of, £400 including vat now.
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