Nord ignition problems

Hi all,

Lately I've been having some strange problems with ignition. When I
try to start my engine in the morning it fires up and then dies with a
cough. Okay, that's normal but then it happens:

On the next attempt the engine is completely dead! Sofar I've replaced
the distributor cap, the lead wire between the coil and distributor
and the spark plugs. At some point I even replaced the coil with one
I've had lying around for some years. Since there was no change and I
lacked equipment to cut the tie wraps I put the old one back.

Somehow later during the day it just seems to come back to life and I
can eventually start it. Once running there's no trace of anything
being wrong. I can cut it and restart it without any sign of problems,
even after several hours. The next morning it's back to square one...

I've taken the whole thing apart this weekend. Cleaned up everything
but still haven't found the source. The strangest thing happened when
I removed the spark plug from cylinder 1 to see if I had a spark at
all: with the plug removed the engine seemed to come to life, with the
spark plug put back in it was completely dead again. I verified this
behaviour, three times in a row. That's the point where I replaced the
spark plugs and thought I'd finaly found it, until this morning...

Anyone have any clues? Please, I'm at the end of it....

Gordon
Gordon

Giulietta 1.8 '82
GT Junior 2.0 '75
GT Junior 2.0 '74 (project)