parts and advice please

1978 1300 4 speed

hi everyone, not been on for a while as not been able to do much with my project.

however, yesterday i went over and picked her up from my dads garage and she is now sat in my yard so work has begun.

we put some petrol in as it had evaporated and put a fully charged battery on. i'm not sure how long she has been standing but on the turn of the key she sounded extremely tight.

we discovered the fuel pump was not working. someone has by-passed the original mechanical pump with an aftermarket electric pump. i stripped the pump down and we got it working, however, it is no good as the points are completely gone.

has anyone got any ideas where i can get a replacement pump from?

will i be better just replacing the engine with a uno 1300 as the guy i bought it off said it had been timed the wrong way and the little ends may have gone.

what else should i be doing to get it running properly and to get it through its mot without any problems.

apologies for all the questions........

You can buy electric pumps off the shelf or by mail order (try looking up demon tweeks online).

I'm not entirely sure how timing it the wrong way would have ruined the little ends all by itself. I would give the engine a chance before giving up on it. They are very robust units in this sense and can take a fair bit of abuse. The only really big killer is failure of the cooling system and that has much the same effect on all engines!

Put a small amount of lube down the spark plug holes and let it sit for a day and then try it again, the bores had probably gone dry which is why it seemed tight.

I would suggest replacing the timing belt and retiming the engine as a matter of course. Make sure everything is set correctly and you should find it runs quite sweetly.

You can put a 1300 engine in from an Uno if you really want but you might as well just put the later 1500 engine and have done with it.

thanks for the reply jimbro, i wish i had your wealth of knowledge. i'll give your suggestions a try.............