Hi again.
OK. Fitted a new coil yesterday, car now starts first time. However, all is not well. Engine runs ok on tickover, but seems to misfire badly when revved. Bear in mind, car was perfectly fine before laying it up for a few weeks and disconnecting the battery. Because I got the famous G40 crank sensor fault code I decided to change the distributor for a new one I bought a couple of years ago from ECP. Mistake! There is no way the new one would mechanically engage in the car, also on the old dist the rotor for the hall sensor has only one notch in it, the new dist has 3, so is obviously wrong. Frustrated, I decided to swap the old hall sensor for the new one which went in ok (bit of a faff). If I unplug the connector from the dist the engine seems to run about the same. Now when I run the VCDS-lite it shows the fault code g28 engine speed sensor. According to threads I have read, this is normal if the engine is not running. Also I have read that the G40 fault code also registers if the ecu is scanned with the engine not running A bit of confirmation from someone would be really appreciated. The old crank sensor was changed a few years ago as the wiring had completely disintegrated.
