Found our missing boost
Had a good fiddle with the Amal valve, but couldn't get it to click and divert the air, so I took it to bits, expecting it to be all gunged up. I do a fair bit with solenoid valves for air and hydraulics for a job, so i kind of knew what should have been going on in there. But it still took me a moment or three to work out what the hell was going on here



Yes some (strong expletive deleted) has actually removed the spool from the centre, and then simply bunged up the bleed port with a chopped off bolt, and then melted a hole in the side with a hot pin or something!!! Not ideal for precise boost control at all!

As a temporary fix, i salvaged a three port valve from the handy pile of mazda in the corner of the garage, whilst we wait for a MAC solenoid valve to arrive in the post. Im hoping that this will be a nice reliable alternative to the expensive amal valve.
There was also another issue with boost control, which i suspect may be the reason for someone dicking around with the Amal, i had no positive feed to the valve whatsoever, which would also explain why the idle valve was also doing nothing (they should both share a feed from the fuel pump relay) this was traced to a break in the loom and repaired. Full boost was back in the game, i promptly disconnected the idle valve again, as it is a little sticky in its old age, and wasn't really benefiting anything.