Saab: 1987 saab 900. not starting., rotor arm, exhaust hangers

Question
Hello,
I need to pick your brains please.
I bought this lovely red 2 door Saab, not 900i or turbo, a few months ago, drove it 300 miles home through the night and it drove fine, but a few miles from home the rubber exhaust hangers, which must have been perished, broke and then the exhaust did too.It had been laid up a good while as the man who loved it died and his wife  just had it parked in the garage for several years.
I then stored it in my shed and saved up . .winter here was hard and so was life . . .every few weeks I started it up, after a bodge repair on the exhaust and just drove it around my house and drive and parked it up again.
There was plenty of anti freeze in it.
With better weather and having found a garage man willing to work on it for me and get an NCT on it,( I am in Ireland ) . .  I went to start it up to take it to his workshop. No joy. Turning over okay, but no firing.
I had a bit of a look around , decided the distributor cap was well worn and also the rotor arm looked as though it could have been a little burned, I have now replaced the distributor cap, and rotor arm, also ht leads and I have a new fuel filter,that's  still in the box, to be honest.
Just put a gallon of petrol in as the gauge was showing empty . .though I believe there to have been petrol in there.

Because I have no assistant I can't check for a spark . . . can't be behind the wheel and looking under the bonnet.

Do you have any ideas?

Any thing welcome.
Thanks for reading this.
gill

Answer
Gill
As you know, your no-start condition is typically caused by one of several things  lack of spark or fuel most commonly, or rarely by a "slipped/broken" timing chain. In order of likelihood, I would check the following:
  A.  Fuel Supply: You can check the fuel pump as follows: Locate the fuse panel over the left front wheel well. Remove fuses 27 and 30; apply a jumper wire from the outboard [wheel side]terminal of fuse 30 to the inboard [engine side] terminal of fuse 27 with the key off. The fuel pump should run with the jumper in place...now try to start the engine..if it starts, then OK; you need a new fuel pump OR fuel pump relay OR associated wiring.

 B. Check the spark..Alas, its really hard to check spark if you are working alone. If electronically inclined, you could rig up a neon bulb (type NE-51 or equiv) as follows: To one terminal, solder on some hookup wire and wrap the far end around any of the high tension [spark plug] wires with 10 turns. Attach another wire to the other bulb terminal and ground it. Place the bulb in a place where you can see it while in the driver's seat...the bulb will flash if you have a normal spark during cranking.

  C. Timing Belt/Chain:  This condition is usually revealed by cranking the engine and determining if it "sounds" normal...ah--ah--ah, etc. If it sounds irregular, then the timing is at a fault.

  Hope this helps,
              Jerry