The pulley only rotates the fan and alternator.

I was hoping the symptoms would highlight a mess up I have done putting it all back together.

bugger!!

So why does your 1.carb not run and the 2. Only a bit.... Try to solve that mystery first.. Is your petrol supply ok is there enough letrol going to the carb???? I had that too. Iddleling along justvfine buf when it had to work it striked.. My tankfuelpipe was blocked by old petrol... So it can be blocked by rust. Try an extern fuellead to the carb (by putting a jerrycan higher then the carb) and suck to the fuelpipe to let it start running....

I wish my kids could have a Renault 4 to go to college and stuff in.

How about endplay of distributor? Does the distributor shaft move up-down more than ½mm..?

We once had quite mysterios problem in VW K-70, misfired some cylinder, mostly on idle and power was gone. We checked about everything, camshat and its timing, head gasket, carburator, valves and valve clearances, and still it misfired and the misfire - cylinder was randomly every of them...

Then, after changed distributor, engine started to work like it should be, even better because all that we did, so finally looked about distributor and it had about 2mm endplay...




Reason for this mystical misfiring was that ignition timing moved all the time, moved from correct setting over 30 degrees wrong...

You can have this one

Plus at €35 a year for fully comp insurance and no car tax it is near enough cheaper than the train. But a lot more stressy when it all goes wrong

Right so that is the fuel pump removed, stripped and cleaned. Fuel lines to Tank and carb blown through and checked. I think the fuel should be OK now.

But when I went to check the timing again, I could not find the marker, then suddenly the car revved and it was back, then off again and then back, each time I touched the distributor. So I am off to find a new cap just to make sure or at least take this out of the fault equation.

I do seem to have a lot of up and down play on the distributor as well as left and right. But I assumed the up and down is taken out by the cap sitting snuggly and the left and right by the turn of the engine.

I will be back in a few hours

No, its not.

Distributor cap has weak spring below center brush/coal, and it is so weak it cannot hold the shaft to move up. Also, I assume there is helical gears what operates distributor, so when the shaft moves up/down it alters the igtinion timing...

And the other direction, I assume there is contact breaker, so if the shaft moves left and right, the breaker gap and ignition timing moves all the time...

So what i think, is you have at least two separate issues with distributor, what makes timing impossible, up/down is easy to fix but left/right needs new bushings to distributor and without lathe it is very hard to make (possible, but needs lot of work).

Got the new cap and rotor arm.

I think I compounded the problem. The initial fault I think lies with the carb and letting in too much air (possible leak at the manifold or maybe the carb itself)

But when I got it started and running, I adjusted the timings but broke the distributor cap by twisting it instead of the unit itself (looking at the strobe light and not at the distributor). I thought it was fine but now it was not.

Put on the new cap and rotor arm and it started first turn without any vibration from the engine - took it up the road and it blasted away. I need to fine tune the carb and the timing and just seal the exhaust seal onto the manifold and I think job done.

Will also change the oil and flush out the cooling system again before my lad takes it back to Toulouse tomorrow.

Cheers everyone

Just out of interest is it a 4 GTL (1100cc) or a 4 TL (845cc)?

First post says 4L...

You have to be careful when swapping engine sizes in an R4, as a friend of mine found out many years ago.
When the 850cc engine in his wife's R4 expired, he decided to install an 1100cc engine from a GTL as an upgrade and successfully created a car with one forward gear and 4 reverse gears.
He was a rather grumpy chap anyway, but that almost drove him over the edge.

p.s. @ Geo, that's why I asked about the timing marks.
Most engines spin 'clockwise' when viewed from the end where you'd use a starting handle, if that makes any sense.
The R4's 750cc and 850cc engines rotated 'counter-clockwise', iirc.
I've owned 2 of them, a 750cc LHD import and then an 850cc RHD, but it was a looong time ago.