Sorted ! Now THIS is what this forum is all about, people helping people.
Copied and pasted all the replies here into a word doc and loaded up the Landy with the laptop and the tools PilotDar listed, swung by Perth and bought a plug then drove with my dad (he’s 78) over to the pasture where the plane was. Removed the top cowling and fired it up, switched to the left mag (the rough one) and ran it for 30 seconds, jumped out and found the forward left cylinder head was cold the rest were nice and toasty. Traced the lead from the left mag and it was the bottom plug which involved removing the bottom half of the cowling. Did not want to disconnect all the air hoses so loosened it off and had the old man on all fours under the plane with the cowling resting on his back. The first problem was I did not have a plug key deep enough to remove the plug, I did have a socket that was long enough but was a few sizes too big, after sticking a bit wire and some paper in the socket and some advice from my dad along the lines of “hurry up you useless bastard” and “this is killing me being under here” I got the plug replaced all with a 30MPH wind blowing. Fired it up and all was well, waited for the wind to die down a bit and flew back to the home strip with the Maule now safely tucked away in the hangar.
Thanks to all for the advice it is greatly appreciated.
Last edited by piperboy84; 6th September 2012 at 20:29.