Dwelling on the topic of Dwell, To continue to Dwell or Not to Dwell Options

[ctc911ctc]

'74, 2.0L 24K miles, all original

I have been trying to get the dwell angle to the specified number between 44 and 50 degrees. This has been a real effort

I rebuilt the Distributor, I thought I did a good job but the vacuum plate was being touched by the points. The shaft that the spring of the points hinges on has an extension that is used to anchor the points. This extension was touching the plate below the one that the points were mounted on.



The red arrow points to the top of the shaft where the other side there is a protrusion used to anchor the points to the top plate. This protrusion was rubbing against the bottom plate which is shown by the green arrow.

Sooooo, I did what all of us would do and ground the shaft to a few mils, just enough for it to anchor and NOT touch the lower plate.

Next I set the points to .014m to approximate the dwell angle and it was 25deg - grrrr, supposed to be between 44 and 50........sigh
Then I sent it to .013 and it was 55deg
Then to 0.12 and it was 15 deg.

I tried another Dwell tool (same results) and then I bought a new Distributor.

I bought it from a very experienced rebuild shop that was suggested by members here, It arrived and I installed it. Capacitor needs to be mounted on the side of the distributor that is toward the rear of the car.....learned this the hard way.

I now can get the dwell to 40 degrees - I am 4 degrees off. I was thinking of chasing this but decided I would check in with the Dwell team here at 914World.......should I chase 4 degrees?

Any direction as to this?

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)

ALSO - is there a correct method for setting the points? Meaning, I sometimes have the points "click" after I pull the feeler gauge out of the points, should there be ANY movement of the points after the feeler gauge is removed?

Signed: Long on Theory, Short on Experience.

[technicalninja]

Give the coil wire something to ground on or you can have "sparkies" inside the cap

@technicalninja
Could you provide a bit of specifics on this? Sounds like good advice but not sure how to implement it if there is something additional to do as a part of this technique.

I'd just temporarily affix the coil wire 1/8-1/4" away from the engine case. You could just ground it and it would work fine but I LIKE to see the spark.

Sometimes a plug will "fit" in the coil wire and you can stick the plug in and connect a jumper from the plug body to the engine case

I'm hunting BLUE!
Yellow means weak spark...

Even if I grounded the wire, I would check the spark intensity after I made my dwell adjustment.

A few American cars had a cool little window in the cap that allowed dwell adjustments while the vehicle was running. This is really "THE WAY" but does not apply to 98% of what's out there.

Once you adjust the dwell while running you never want to go back.

Once you make the jump to COP you REALLY never want to go back...
You ALSO don't have to redo ignition shit for 100K either!