Morris Minor Owners Club

been Having trouble starting,cant get her to idle, wants to fire up,but will splutter and rumble start, and cut out,have taken complete carb off doner car still the same,have also dimantled existing carb and replaced new bits,have also tried different adjustments to carb etc etc,have also changed distributer, have slacked distributer off so i can move it 1mm at a time to get tdc, still no luck, electrically wise have changed everything, wants to start, but wont hold long enough for me to check the timeing,anymore suggestions before it goes to garage and have them sought it out,please feel free with suggestion, am now getting desparate

You need to decide which of the 3 critical items are missing. For an engine to start you need
1 - Fuel
2 - Spark (in the correct place)
3 - Compression (preferably near enough equal on all 4 cylinders and over 10o psi at least depending on engine wear).
Check the fuel pump is pumping by taking the pipe off the carb and pump fuel into a glass jar.
Check spark by cranking engine whilst holding (with insulated pliers) a plug lead close to the engine block and see if a spark jumps from lead to block. Repeat for all 4 leads. If all OK with the leads repeat the same process but after removing each spark plug and attaching it to the end of each lead in turn. Check the timing is OK by setting engine to TDC and align distributer to number 1 plug lead (will be close enough to start engine. You can fine tune the timing later). Also check the plug leads are on the correct plugs by following 1, 3, 4, 2 firing order ANTI clockwise around the distributer.
Finally check compression with a gauge (maybe best done by a garage if you are not familiar with the procedure).

Having said all this, from your description, I would be tempted to say the plug leads are not in the correct order....
Good luck !

Has this just come on 'suddenly' - or has there been any work done to the car - or has it been laid up for the winter??