More electrics and firing the engine up

This week has been a big milestone although not as much in terms of work as I would of liked. So the last intercooler pipe arrived on the Monday ready for a Tuesday evening start so I went and got two gallons of fuel ready.

...It didn't start so I started on testing the basics.

First I checked for a spark - yes but looked weak so I put the battery on charge and put some copper plugs in I had bought.

Now I had a good spark but was unsure on fuel, the MR2 doesn't prime on ignition only once the key is turned to the starting position. So I hooked the fuel pump up differently so it did prime on ignition...No change.

Next was to check the Earths and clean them up, to be honest they all looked clean and good as they were new but I did them again anyway... still not any better.

I started using a multimeter to confirm all the sensors and ECU were within tolerances and getting power, all looked fine. So I posted on an MR2 forum for help and was advised to use the diagnosis port to get the codes out but without the combination cluster I had no engine light to blink. Peter on the forum was helpful and told me the relevant wire to hook up a bulb to and I had my engine light, it flashed out a code of 41... throttle position sensor (TPS) so I set about re-calibrating and adjusting this...still no joy.

A friend then came over and we used a battery booster supporting 900amps... still no joy and not always easy to turn over, we begun to think starter motor so rather then messing about I got one ordered and fitted Saturday morning. still no difference.

tried adjusting the dizzy cap...nothing still

It was at this point I was confident of all my work so decided to whip the cam cover off and the cams appeared to be completely out by 5 / 6 teeth on inlet and same on exhaust but one clockwise out and other anticlockwise.

I never thought to even check here as I had a mechanic do the engine work as I had the head off, unfortunately at the time I was learning a lot about the engine and car so didn't see this mistake being made or feel confident in doing it myself.

I then simply removed the tensioner adjusted the cams, reset the tensioner and fitted it all back together. I put all the inlet parts and intercooler back on and went to start it...fired instantly.

I could only run it for 30 secs as there was no coolant in the system however it started and would rev, the idle was not steady but with the TPS and dizzy cap both being fiddled with and need setting back up, it ran rather well, although loud (no cat or exhaust!).

Since then I've started it twice and it fires instantly.

Now that was sorted I could get back on to the electrics, I have completed the side lights, dipped headlights, horn and Radiator fan.

With all this wiring it was time to start tidying it as I was happy with a number of systems and it was looking messy, so I started to place some in conduit

things become a lot clearer as you move completed systems out the way...however the fusebox area becomes more and more busy all the time.

 I have not bundled in conduit down here yet and have just grouped the wires. On the left hand side of the photo are two relays, one for the side light circuit and one for the dipped headlights, a third will appear for main beam.

As well as getting the above moving along nicely I need to complete the coolant reservoir for the coolant system, so I fitted the filler cap and estimated where I will fit the expansion bottle.

The 3 wires in the photo are for the indicators, sidelights and brake lights, two more wires will appear (reverse and fog) before they are bundled together.

The engine control / wiring, fuel pump, igniter etc... is all exactly the same as the MR2 so should be easy to get assistance if i have any issues to diagnose.

The other circuits, I used the MR2 loom to cut out the wire i wanted and stuck to the same colours as the original MR2, again hopefully making it easier in the future.