Hi

I recently bought a 1993 Vauxhall Carlton 2 litre 8 valve at auction
and it started and drove very well. Then one weekend, i left the car
running and after about 10 minutes of idling, i noticed it starting to
idle very rough. The car would shake and revs would drop then go upto
2k revs before coming down again. This would continue along with a
distinct smell of rotten eggs (excess unburnt fuel?).

I thought nothing of it at the time and it sat in my driveway for a
week. On trying to start the car the next week, it turned over and over
and did not fire up. I did it until the battery went dead. On
connecting jump leads i managed to get the car started after about 5
minutes of turning over and pumping the accelerator. Eventually it did
catch.

When started it misfires badly, occasionally stalls. Taking it for a
drive, sometimes there is no power (foot to the floor - car struggling
under 2k revs), sometimes there is full power.

If i turn ignition off and start again when hot, it has trouble
starting again and it will turn and turn until eventually catching.

Help! It was running fine a couple of weeks ago!

Having read previous threads, am i correct in thinking it could be the
ignition system which is at fault - HT leads, distributor, plugs etc or
could it be a sensor of some sort?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Steve