OK here's the back ground: Whilst changing the Cam belt we discovered that the distributor was dodgy, so got a replacement (Thanks Mike).
The old Distributor had not been lined up correctly after a "repair" so the rotor was about 20 degrees off line! And the timing had been played with. I assume to make the car run!!!!
Anyway Everything is back together, the Muppetry of the previous mechanic undone, and the Beat now runs sweet.
I now have a problem with the engine check light. Code 9 comes up and won't clear. (Was not there prior to the job)
Here's the email from my mechanic friend which covers the rest:
"Hi, ok here is what we have:
we are getting a code 9. (Clyl 1 position sensor)
what we did pull fuse's for cpu to clear it
put in diagnostic wire and turn on ignition without starting car. we still get code 9
so its either not clearing the cpu memory and the code still exists in the memory
or
when you put power back to it, its going around and checking its sensors and it seer's something wrong with that sensor and displays the code.
so somehow without the engine being started (so it can learn that error) its still displaying the error code when ignition is turned on.
the car is running great even with error, so its not throw the engine into limp mode as we would expect with an error like that.
one other thing we were thinking of as we are sitting here. the distributor we put in is slightly different than the one we took out, newer looks likes the wires on the distributor plug is slightly different colours.
the rotor also appears to be slightly different in looks I.E.see picture
we are going to check wiring first thing tomorrow to make triple sure we did not miss anything."
Any Suggestions?