hi tltel
thanks for all your imput
i have just come back from the garage smelling of exhust fumes as its now running....
what i found was the wire connecting onto the points was connected on the wrong side the correct order is
The order from left to right should be - bolt, upper ignition point metal band (upper point contact is on this band), b/w wire attachment, insulator, contact point housing (the actual metal piece that attaches it to the backing plate), insulator, washer, lock washer and nut.
mine was connected on the wrong side of the mounting plate it still did have a circuit all be it thru a load of connections
i connected the crimp straight onto the metal band of the top point and their it was a nice thick spark.......
it had run like that for ages and now it had given up
cheers again for your time
jason