Mornin all. I bought a points distributor for a 1996 Chevy 350 v8. It's in a 1963 Chevy c10 PU. I am used to setting the dwell at 30 degrees but it won't run at that setting. It does run at 18 degrees. What would be the proper dwell setting for it? Any ideas??
It seems to run best at 18 degrees. Timing light/mark does jump every so often, but not like it did at 30 degrees. Distributor seems tight, no play in it.
Thanks for the reply and the help. The rebuilt distributor I got had a bad set of points in it. After 2 days of working on it, the sun was just at the right spot and I seen the set screw wobble. At 30 degrees the screw was loose and the points jumped all over the place. At 18 degrees the screw was a little tighter and kinda held the points a tad better. New points and the world is a nice place again.
Late Reply Dang , I was Off Line . Anyways , you want 25° for the best coil saturation and hottest spark then set the timing . V-8 25° 6 Cyl. 33° 4 Cyl. 50° I always set them with the engine turning so it's most accurate .
Mornin vwnate1, 25°?, I have it set at 30° now, but will try 25° and reset the timing mark. Thanks for the feed back,,
Dwell O.K. ; The point of dwell is proper coil saturation to make hotter sparks , the higher the dwell angle , the smaller the points gap so , if it's running well now with 30° I suggest you leave it there . It's an old used car trick to make worn out engines run better by closing up the points gap and re setting the timing , of course , this means you'll have to re adjust it again sooner but the increase in power is usually quite noticable , all else being equal . I hope you remembered to use points grease on the rubbing block ? .
SON OF A ,, I changed the points while I was in the auto parts store. He handed me the points and I put them in and left, no grease was put on, DARN.. Is there any other kind of grease that would work? or do I need to go get some?? Ideas??? It is on a new distributor. SON OF A ,,
Points Lube I only use the correct stuff , there should have been a little capsule of the grease in the points box , it may have fallen out on the parts counter ? looks like an old timey " Contact " capsule but it has *just* enough Dist. Grease in it to do the job . OReilly's , Pep Boys , Kragen , Shucks and so on all sell little foil packages of it cheaply , just go back looking for the capsule then ask for it if you don't find it . Put it on the up side of the rubbing block so it'll work its self in as the miles go by . Not much is necessary , a glop the size of a broken off pencil tip , if anyone still remember pencils in school . Underneath the rotor are two advance flyweights , they have pins sticking up at each end , if the holes fr the pins are red , that's bad , wipe it clean and drop a couple drips of oil on each pin to keep them lubed up , this makes the power delivery smoother as the engine RPMs speed up . Of the holes in the weights are egg shaped , just go get used ones from any old junker , the # is stamped right in and is the same for millions and millions of GM engines , even the 250 & 295 L6 engines use the V8 small block Chevy dist. weights . I hope this helps , don't worry nor get excited , soon your old truck will be running tits and everyone will be impressed .
