well i replaced the hose connecting the top half of the manifold to the bottom half with a genuine nissan part. the new part was about 30mm longer and nice and bendy instead of hard and crusty. this made it a breeze to put on in comparison.
i did this last friday (as in a week ago) and she still wouldn't start and then when i tried to start it to show dad what was happening on the sunday it was dead flat, as in absolutely no charge at all so we hooked up one of the trickle chargers we have for the motorbikes and it finally got to full charge today (1 week later). so then today i went to start it again and she just absolutely purrs beautifully. it idled high at first but this was because the throttle was hitting on one of the hose clamps keeping it slightly open.
weird huh?
needless to say i'm absolutely over the moon right now
thanks to everyone that helped me
jed