OCC has always been a great starter over the 5 years I've had it running. However, when I went to start it after a few weeks' lay-up, it totally refused. I knew the spark was the problem, as I could smell the fuel!
I took the distributor cap off & saw the terminals were a little manky, so cleaned them with some emery paper. The car then started before I'd got the key fully turned
. However, for a while it ran very poorly, as if it was on 3 cylinders, but then improved again.
I thought I'd better have a good go through the ignition circuit, even though the car has only done about 1,000 miles per year & everything was new when I put it back on the road. All I can say is 'shock, horror!'....
This is No.1 HT lead compared to No.3 (& all the others in fact).
And here is the distributor cap, showing No.1 terminal less than shiny. This has actually cleaned up well, but it's obviously a new set of leads. I can't believe it continued to run so well for so long!
How can that one be so bad when the others are fine? I must have trapped some water in it or something similar.