Yesterday I finally cracked it - I finally got the starter turning properly. Having charged the big battery and trying it again with no success, I traced the problem to the jump start point. Here, the battery wire bolts to one side and the main power lead to the engine bolts on to the other. When I was trying to start it, I saw sparking across it, So i removed both leads and connected them directly to eachother and eureka, it works, consistently. One problem less to deal with.

I also continued to work on the rear loom, separating out the obsolete wires, and making up a multiplug connector for the rest, this will allow me to separate the rear section of the loom with ease whenever required. I picked up this tip from the John Dickes seminar at Stoneleight last week. The connector is a PC ATX power connector kit from Maplin's - £1.79 including connector block and pins. I must confess that the crimp on pins re really fiddly but so far it's going well.