The spark was alright, but thinking that a bit of tlc always helps I put in a little time. I'd recently bought a new super coil from ECAS to help with hot starting, to replace the aging HT leads, and mean less hair-dryer-ing of the damp coil for wet starts. The spark was great, but still no start - it looked like no petrol was coming in.
After running low on ideas and reading point 13 on this starting guide, I thought a new fuel pump might be in order. It's one of the few components of its size that I hadn't yet had to replace. A new pump arrived and despite being a little fiddley without removing more from the car, I managed to fit it fine. The instructions in the Haynes manual were pretty easy to follow.
Here's the new pump ready to go in:
I knew about the joint in the fuel line under the front wing from when we replaced the chassis and I put a new joint in, that's where you disconnect the line to the pump. Then removing the pump I used my socket set's long arm to reach down to the two bolts that look up at you on the pump's left:
Here's the gap left. The "spacer" the manual talks about is sitting on top of the shiny plate and the rod is poking out in the middle (with a big blob of grease on the end):
Despite a shiny new fuel pump going in, there was still no luck starting. I ran the battery down again trying (which in the cold weather didn't take that long) and am fresh out of ideas. Have to borrow a car to get around at Christmas and figure something out in January.