Electrical help

[nap51dcrow]

Hello,

So I changed the thermostat on my Herald yesterday, and afterwards when I went to start the car, it ran rather poorly. I assumed it was from the cold weather and sitting for a couple days waiting on parts. But today I went to start the car, and it wont start. It turns over, but wont fire off. I am getting fuel to the carb, so i began to look at the electrical side of things. I found a few different things.

1) The ground wire from the temp gauge isnt really grounded at all, so will be tring to sort that out when I find a place to ground it to.

2) I opened what I thought was the fuse box, but instead found the following wires connected together by a bent piece of metal.
Are these wires suppose to be fused? Does anyone know what wires are suppsoe to be run to each other? Is there a fuse box i can buy and run all the wires to?



3) I have this box piggy backing my coil, and it goes to the distributor cap. I was told it helps, and is an upgrade to go with the alternator conversion on the car. Is there anything I should check or replace on this?
Is this something I am better off getting rid of?




So, any ideas of what else to look for to get the car running again would be of great help.

Thanks

Kevin

[dinger]

Not sure what the loose wires represent without voltage testing - but you do have some form of period electronic ignition pack clipped to the coil .. designed (in some cases - optimistically) to boost ignition spark and to increase the life of the contact breakers by allowing them to be a switch without loading and hence erosion - typically a mob called Sparkrite used to sell something similar. It may be that that is what has failed . Disconnect all the wires from the coil and remove the unit completely from the coil
It is possible to establish a spark again if the coil is still sound by cleaning the points (if the above is the case and they are still fitted ) and checking if the points capacitor ( known sometimes as the 'condenser')is present and is wired in and then ensuring the single lead from the distributor  is then connected to the negative/contact breaker connection on the coil while takinga connection from the other connection on the coil to the positive pole on the battery . If you then flick the points open from shut then you should see some sparking at the points indicating a proper circuit .
Disconnect the small cylindrical component attached to one of the coil bolts as that is a suppressor designed to reduce ignition generated interference on a car radio and has nothing to do with your immediate problem but is best to isolate in case of any failure .
After all this messing around - remove a plug and check for a spark after replacing distributor cap and rotor arm into position .. Note that should this start the car ,, you will only stop it by stalling it or disconnecting the coil feed to the battery ..
If the above confuses ,, pm me

[nap51dcrow]

I tried holding a spark plug to the block, just to see if there was anything at all. No, there was no spark. So going to try and remove the box that is on the coil and see if that helps, but not sure if no spark means the coil is dead regardless of the secondary box.

[Davemate]

first two pics
Looks like the wires from the control box ( used when running a dynamo) if your useing an alternator you have to join curtain wires together

[dinger]

If you are careful .. you can test the coil by wiring from the positive post on the battery to the positive side of the coil and then taking a flying lead from the other terminal .

pull one of the ht leads from the distributor cap and fit a plug .push the other end of the lead into the coil output socket .
earth the plug to the cylinder block and stroke the free end of the flying lead to the block which should generate sparks ,  when you should also see a spark across the plug if the coil is sound .

Make sure that no spilt fuel is about .

[nap51dcrow]

Ok, going to take more pictures and try a few things. Will let you know what I find.