Can't edit posts anymore?
Anyway, not sure if anyone pointed this out yet, the reason I suggested you need a Dwell meter is not only to set the Dwell correctly but to check for wear in the dizzy shaft. If this is worn, the dwell will never be steady no matter how much you try to adjust the points gap. Even if everything else is absolutely perfect, your ignition events will be all over the place (too short, too long, too weak too strong, at the wrong time, etc).
Which means Dwell needs to be tuned to the value of your capacitor. Too much Dwell, and the capacitor doesn't have the time to charge and absorb the current of the coil collapsing field, too little Dwell and the capacitor doesn't have time to donate its charge to the coil to help rise the field back up (it is basically shorting the coil winding). Like I said before, capacitance values written on the capacitor are not that important because the tolerance is rather high anyway, but it is essential that the ignition is tuned to find the best dwell angle for whatever the capacitance may be. The adjustment built in the points gap gives you quite enough range to find the sweet spot over the range of possible values of capacitance even with a 20% tolerance but you need to be able to measure dwell reliably otherwise you're shooting in the dark. The coil inductance comes into play as well, but that's another minefield.
Point is, tune your ignition looking at the Dwell angle, for YOUR engine NOW not the points gap as it is recommended by the factory for a brand new engine seventy years ago. Ideally you would have some Dwell value for the engine when it was new and aim to replicate that. That is your baseline. Your engine may or may not be happiest at that value, depending on many things mentioned above (everything comes into play, coil inductance, wires, dizzy, plugs, mixture richness, etc) but starting at a reasonable value of dwell gives you a fighting chance to tune things right.
Hope you get something out of that.
Anyway, not sure if anyone pointed this out yet, the reason I suggested you need a Dwell meter is not only to set the Dwell correctly but to check for wear in the dizzy shaft. If this is worn, the dwell will never be steady no matter how much you try to adjust the points gap. Even if everything else is absolutely perfect, your ignition events will be all over the place (too short, too long, too weak too strong, at the wrong time, etc).
Which means Dwell needs to be tuned to the value of your capacitor. Too much Dwell, and the capacitor doesn't have the time to charge and absorb the current of the coil collapsing field, too little Dwell and the capacitor doesn't have time to donate its charge to the coil to help rise the field back up (it is basically shorting the coil winding). Like I said before, capacitance values written on the capacitor are not that important because the tolerance is rather high anyway, but it is essential that the ignition is tuned to find the best dwell angle for whatever the capacitance may be. The adjustment built in the points gap gives you quite enough range to find the sweet spot over the range of possible values of capacitance even with a 20% tolerance but you need to be able to measure dwell reliably otherwise you're shooting in the dark. The coil inductance comes into play as well, but that's another minefield.
Point is, tune your ignition looking at the Dwell angle, for YOUR engine NOW not the points gap as it is recommended by the factory for a brand new engine seventy years ago. Ideally you would have some Dwell value for the engine when it was new and aim to replicate that. That is your baseline. Your engine may or may not be happiest at that value, depending on many things mentioned above (everything comes into play, coil inductance, wires, dizzy, plugs, mixture richness, etc) but starting at a reasonable value of dwell gives you a fighting chance to tune things right.
Hope you get something out of that.
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There has to be one in Los Angeles somewhere.....
That's a nice little collectable to have sitting on the shelf. Does it work? if it doesn't replacing any capacitors that will probably get it going again!
