• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Novice at points based distributors

Share this page

mjobrien

mjobrien

Jedi Trainee
Country flag
Offline
A question from a novice at points based distributors. Does the rotor actually touch the leads inside the distributor cap or is there a gap where an expected spark jumps across ?

In setting the initial timing for cylinder one, I wanted to use the fact that the coil lead and the number one cylinder lead on the cap, would connect and give me a good approx of where to tighten the distributor down to start with?

Thanks,
Michael.
 
Hi Michael, NO the rotor tip does not touch the terminals inside the distributor cap. Yes it also jumps that gap.

If you have a timing lite just hook it up to #1 sparplug lead start the engine and set the timing to specification.
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/savewave.gif
Prior to setting the timing make sure the points gap is set to specification also.---------Fwiw---Keoke
 
It's easy to hook up a test lamp between the dizzy connection at the coil and chassis ground. The test lamp will be off until the points open at which time the lamp will turn on. The spark has a very short life and can easily be missed in daylight. The test lamp method is more forgiving.
 
Back
Top