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So we've been having some trouble with the Land Rover.

 The basic issue is that it won't start. Again.

The long version of the story is that I had to get the bins up from the end of the driveway, so I thought I would use the Land Rover, because why not? Upon turning the key and pushing the start button, not much happened. I knew that the battery was kind of sad, especially with it being a bit cold, so I put the charger on it for a while. With the battery how it is, I wouldn't have been surprised if it wouldn't start even if it had no other problems, as when it cranks, the voltage drops far enough that the ignition system stops working.

So I thought I would give the battery a tickle up and then roll-start it down the hill, as it's parked pretty much at the top. So after a bit of screwing around pushing it so it faced down the hill, I jumped in and went for a roll, got a bit of speed up, and dropped the clutch. The engine did a couple of revolutions, then the whole car stopped dead. No start.

Bugger. Oh well, try again.

I managed to tow it back up the hill with my Commodore, on my own, an excersise I won't be repeating, and pointed it back down the hill. Another attempt, and it still failed! I kept trying though, all the way to the bottom of the property. Which leaves a problem, as then there's no gravitational potential energy left in the car, and the rotten thing still won't start.

So I got Rex to bring out some jumper leads and towing straps, and we managed to pull the Land Rover out backwards, as we couldn't get to the front, until we could try jump starting it. After quite a few attempts, we gave up and towed it back to where we parked it.

Photo of the carbie in place
Now you see it...

A day or two later, having agreed that the carbie was probably the problem, I took the rotten thing apart, expecting to find it full of water, or possibly dirt.

Carbie removed
...Now you don't!

 So with the parts on the healing bench, I started poking around, and after some dissassembly and reassembly and cursing at bizzare design, I thought I had found the culprit.

Shitty photo of the dirty screw.
Sorry for the photo quality, I've been meaning to get a new camera, and the one on my phone doesn't work.

So after cleaning everything, and final reassembly, it was time to try starting again. Pump up fuel, check. Engine has oil, check. Battery has enough volts, check, but expect only 1 or 2 attempts before it's dead. Right. Battery switch on, ignition on, pump throttle, crank! crank, crank, crank, crank.

Bugger.

To make sure that there was actually fuel flowing around the carbie now (it seemed like there wasn't before), I took the intake off and pumped the throttle. This activates the throttle pump, which is to put more fuel in when it's running and you open the throttle wide suddenly. The fuel was pouring in, so things were working, so I reattached the air intake, and waitied for some assistance.

After both Rex and I fiddling with the engine for quite some time, neither of us can figure out why the ____ thing isn't starting. There's definitely fuel going in, there must be compression, as the engine will stop the car when in gear, and we checked the spark, so we're lost. The only other thing I want to try is that I've got an inline spark tester, that I saw in the tool shop for pretty cheap, so I want to give that a go.

The next thing to do is put a diesel engine in the car.

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