Help me out please, this is depressing me.

Girlfriend's Escort 1300 won't start. Here's what happened...

1. Changed starter motor, no probs except a strange noise which went away.
2. Checked oil... mayonnaise. Assumed head gasket gone.
3. Someone else looked, said it might be condensation (car's not had a long run).
4. Changed oil (not filter - done about 6wks ago), car drives ok but idles like it's missing on a cylinder.
5. Oil looks ok after 60 mile round trip.
6. Two days later, starter spinning but hardly firing. Will not start.
7. Removed plugs - black and sooty. Ordinarily I'd assume rich mixture from carb, but I thought maybe to do with oil change (overfilled?).
8. Checked oil can - correct basic oil. Checked oil level - high but not over.
9. Cleaned plugs with engine cleaner and checked gaps.
10. Motor spinning and occaisionally trying to fire,
11. Tried with jump leads - spinning and hardly firing.
12. Tried 1hr later without leads - spinning, tried to fire.

I'm only an occasional mechanic, can't remember the routine.

How do I know if engine's flooded?
How do I check for spark without electrocuting myself?

Any other ideas?

I'm off to look at Hayne's, but I do so with a heavy heart (e.g. jack up and remove both front wheels to get to starter motor - come on!!).

Thanks

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Try taking the distributer cap off, have a look at the rotor arm, could be damp, this would then not be distributing a decent charge to each of the HT leads.

To check for a decent spark, take a spark plug out, hold the metal part of the spark plug against the engine block and get someone to turn the car over, you should see a spark.

Um, apart from that dunno.
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Ta muchly.

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Thans m8, will do.

Distributor looks a pig to get to, so I've avoided that, but here goes...

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check the vacuum hoses for leaks/splits etc.

Tez
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first off what age is the car?
The way i check to see if there is a spark at the plug is to pull of a plug lead take athe plug out and rest it on a metal part of engine and get somone to turn engine over.
I would next check the fuel pump to see if that working pull the main carb feed pipe off and turn engine overto see u have a good supply.
Check these things first and like i said need to know the age of the car.
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Escort won't start

My escort started, once i'd payed her 30 quid
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Thanks all, will follow up all those. Longneck, if an escort had recieved the money that goes out on this car then I would be a happy man.

Anyway, that inaacessible distributor is no such thing it's a coil arrangement with a sensor for timeing - sounds like a poor man's electronic ignition. The same applies, I suppose, might be damp. And the Haynes (damn their eyes) strongly warns against earthing a plug against the block, but I don't see how it's different from a normal sparking process.

Thanks again, lots to go on. And it's chucking it down.

Anyone fancy explaining why overfilling oil is so bad?

Cheers

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Richard,

It's an M, which I think makes it mid 90s

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ok now we know it has a gel pack for distributor then first off there is a flywheel sensor on the front flange of the engine that is held in with a torque bolt take that out and cleanit up with a rag dont use anything else or u will ruin it,put ti back in and try that.and then check to see if u have a spark and if not i would replace the gel pack which is wot u thought was the dist.
How much did you overfill the engine with oil by?IF you have got the level in between the 2 marks on the dipstick then you havent overfilled the car.
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Richard,

I'll try what you said tomorrow with the sensor for the gelpack. Woulf filth affect the pickup or just the signal?

The oil, I tried to fill to the mark, but it's poss that I didn't leave long enough to let it all drain down. After a 60 mile round trip, the oil now reads at the top line. there was a slight smoky smell when I parked half way through that trip (I sound like the type of person i would normally take the p out of here).

I think cyl4 has dodgy piston rings, as compression was low a while back and it does seem to get through oil.

What effect does overfilling have exactly?

Cheers m8

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If the car has got a cat fitted to it then you can poison the cat by overfilling with oil,due to the piston rings pulling oil from the sump in to the cylinder bores then burning the oil.
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It was a little rubber hose that I obviously detached from a small black electrical unit on the driver's side of the engine compartment, so Tezmitch was closest. Not sure what the unit does (don't care now).

By the way. I bottled out of earthing a plug against the engine because (i) Haynes (how I hate them) sai it might harm the ignition components (ii) I have got and witnessed nasty jolts in the past. I bought a little flashing bulb device for under a fiver and watched it via my shaving mirror as I turned over the engine.

Thanks all for showing an interest.

Richard, no cat on here, but people have often said that too much oil harms the engine. I would have thought it just burned away as you describe.

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