1885 280te stuttering and plugs very very black?

[w123jab]

hi there,

some of you will be aware of the continuing saga of this 280te that i bought sight unseen on ebay recently.

it was a moment of madness, but it was very cheap ie £280.

i have finally got the beauty started, by fiddling with the rotor arm, but the car is running somewhat hesitantly and doesn't like to idle, and is rough when revved. the fiddling involved not placing the rotor arm all the way down on it's seat so that it would make contact with a 'cleaner' part of the dizzy cap. seems to have worked.

i checked the plugs and they are coated in black soot. also, the exhaust is very sooty. i ran the car for almost half an hour and there was no change.

i would be grateful for any solutions to sort this out as i have had nothing but serious grief from my friends, and i would dearly love to pull a rabbit out of the hat, so to speak.

the plugs and leads were replaced last year by the last owner in his attempt to sort out this problem. and have therefore had no use for at least 12 months.

as always, thanking you in advance for all your help.

regards

justin