Triumph Repair: fuel problem, triumph sports cars, spark plug leads

Question
Hello Jim
i recently found a dumped russet brown 1500 with a
triumph tune block..it had been stored in a garage for
about 7-8 years..then dumped at the side of my house..(at
a time when i wanted a spitfire to play with? weird-the
same day got blown out on a sale of a spitfire, girl pulled
put and wanted to keep the car,..someone gave me a
handful of dvds he found in a bin..came home..found/
rescued car...came in the house, looked at dvds..one was
on triumph sports cars?! total true and some what
freaky!)..anyway..the engine looks ok..it turns over but
dosnt fire up..i bypassed the fuel tank via a petrol can into
the fuel pump to try to fire her up..i also took the pie pan
covers of the twin su set up and sprayed 'easy start' into
them..which made her fire up, back fire ..big puff of blue
smoke from the carbs..(which had a smell of burnt
oil?)..and then just turning over again and no firing up/
backfiring ? it seems the pump wasn't sucking in the
fuel..so im assuming that, its a pump i need? or is there
some other way of forcing petrol into to engine to make it
go...brrumm!? i just want to try all methods first, instead of
buying new stuff. i did take the pump off and check the
suction, and it seemed ok? so i would like some advice on
the matter please...
kind regards
marc
p.s i could do a photo study and report for you web site if
you like..ever fixed a car over the net?

Answer
Marc,

You need 3 things to get an engine to run:

1)  Fuel
2)  Fire
3)  Timing

If you have the twin HS4 SU carbs then you can pull the float bowl covers and verify whether you're getting gas to the carb.  

It might be worth verifying that the timing is set right and that the spark plug leads are in the correct order...

I've heard of more than one car abandoned because the old owner didn't keep track of which plug wire went where... then gave up when the car wouldn't run.  Unfortunately they never offer the cars to me :(

;)


Cheers,

Jim