Sunday dawned with the knowledge that I had to finish attaching the fuel pipe and start the installation of the wiring loom whatever else happened.  The kitchen table came in handy to lay the pieces out for inspection.  I was surprised that the loom was in so many separate pieces because the overdrive harness is sold as a separate item and had I assumed that this was because it was the only separate part of the loom, but it is not.  I don't understand why that is sold on its own now, oh well.

It took some puzzling because the white with purple looked identical to the white with brown but I got there in the end.  I'm hoping that this mistake was down to the poor quality of light in the kitchen early in the morning.  It turns out that the centre section of the loom is rather small which pleased me as that is all that needs to go in at the moment.

I did actually go into the garage and started by fitting the throttle pedal and the light dip switch.

I was then able to install the rest of the throttle linkage which went well.

I then removed it all as I have decided to install the engine without the linkage in place.  Next up was the middle section of the wiring loom and securing the fuel pipe.  I installed 4 rivinuts and the job was done in minutes.

So having done the list of things that had to be done prior to the engine install I turned my attention to the engine.  It was a lovely day so I took the car out of the garage and carefully slid the engine away from the wall.  It has been a long time.

I started by cleaning off the easily accessible surface rust and then started to look at what I had.

The first thing I noticed is that the sump is only held on with a few bolts.  I found the rest in a tub containing engine parts.

I removed the distributor and realised that the drive gear that should be on the bottom of it was not there.  I knew that I had a few engine items in one of the original boxes that came with the car and recalled one piece that could be the missing part and after hunting I found it and realised that it was.  I'm not sure how to fit it though so that will be a job for John when I see him next.  The whole unit doesn't go together logically, the gear drive has two ways of joining the distributor and I clearly need to know which one before installation and the drive for the rotor arm comes apart and clashes with other parts.  I need professional help on that.

I also removed the housing for the rev gauge and was surprised to see that there was nothing in the engine to actually drive it.  I started to think now and realised that the oil pump that is in a box at my mother in-law's house was supposed to be installed in the engine, I had always assumed it was a spare, thank heavens I never sold it!

I retired to the sofa to dwell on the day and work out a way forward.  The service manual is surprisingly light on information on the distributor, I can only presume people do not take them apart.  It has more on the oil pump and so I feel ok about that.  I was rather conscious that I have not read the engine section of the manual at all, it was rather interesting and left me feeling like it was quite simple, lets hope that is the case.

I now know that I need to check the oil pressure relief valve as well because I can't assume that it is installed.  I am going to lay the engine on the rear end plate and remove the sump to see if anything else is missing and then hopefully install the oil pump and oil strainer, assuming that is, that I have all the parts.  It will be exciting to see what it all looks like when I first remove the sump.  I was pleased to see the rocker arms and valves all looked in order when I took the rocker cover off so hopefully it will be likewise for the sump.