With Mike up for the weekend and taking his full guidance we went through starting step by step.
First we connected up all the electrics apart from control wire to the starter motor. This included removing the aftermarket immobilizer that had been fitted to the Mazda. I didn't want starting problems caused by a faulty immobilizer!
We removed the HT leads from the plugs. Some water had got into the holes where the plugs go so we spent some time cleaning it all out with bits of rag around the end of screwdrivers. We had a problem trying to remove the spark plugs. The socket in my socket set was too large! It seems technology has moved on since I got my socket set in the late '80s; newer spark plugs have a smaller diameter. I popped round to a neighbour’s to borrow his. Mike was a bit embarrassed that he hadn’t thought to check the plugs as soon as we got the engine into the garage (i.e., about 18 months ago). Fortunately all that water hadn’t caused any corrosion, and the plugs came out easily.
With the spark plugs removed we connected the battery and turned the key to the position that turns on the ignition. The "Not Charging" light came on and we could hear the fuel pump running.
Next stage was to disconnect the rear loom connector (so the fuel pump wouldn't keep running) and connect the start motor control connection. We turned the key all the way round to the position to start the engine. This time the engine turned over. We only did this for a moment, as we realised the plug leads weren’t connected to anything, and it’s not a good idea to run the ignition system like this.
Stage 3 was to connect the spark plugs and earth them, with them lined up on the top of the engine:
We turned the engine over, and this time got a nice set of flashing lights from the spark plugs (and it's not even Christmas!).
We re-connected the rear loom and the starter motor and put a couple of litres of fuel in the fuel tank. We turned the ignition on, and this time the fuel pump ran briefly. Then we turned the engine over until the oil pressure warning light went out. We wondered if the fuel was feeding correctly, and then realised that we could smell the fuel vapour from the spark plug holes. So that was obviously working OK!
Final stage. We put new spark plugs in and re-connected the HT leads. Moment of truth, we tried the key and the engine fired 1st time. A cloud of black smoke was emitted from the exhaust, although less than I'd expected. The idle was a little low so it stalled after a few seconds. We tried again, revving a few time and ran it for a short time before turning off. It sounded really good. It was raining outside and the garage was getting full of fumes so we left it there.
I was amazed that after 18 months, a change of chassis and all my messing around with wiring it started at all, let alone at the first attempt.
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