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On 12 Jan 2004 at 13:46, Greg Merritt wrote: > Increasing the dwell makes the spark start sooner *and* end later. > Changing the timing moves the whole thing earlier or later. Sorry, Greg, but this just isn't right. Nothing happens (sparkwise) when the points close. The spark happens when the points OPEN and it lasts until the stored energy in the coil is exhausted. The length of time that the spark lasts is generally quite short compared to the time between opening and closing of the points. > If you increase the dwell without touching the timing adjustment, > this will effectively "advance" the onset of the spark -- it will advance > your timing. If you decrease the dwell without touching the timing > adjustment, you will retard the onset of the spark. Other way around: Increasing the dwell retards the spark. Don't feel bad, I ALWAYS have to draw myself a picture to figure this out. > So, if you change the dwell of your points, you screw up the > timing and will need to re-set the timing adjustment. Yes. ;-) > On top of this, the electronic igniton you installed *may* not > have the same "center" as the points. It would be nice and simple if it > did, but I don't see why it would have to be so. There really is no "center", at least there's nothing that you should be thinking about. The only point we need to worry about is the point in time when the spark occurs. This is where we set the timing. > Upshot is that you'll really want to check and set the timing > after any pertronix-style points replacement. Exactly right! ;-) -- ******************************* Jim Adney, jadney@vwtype3.org Madison, Wisconsin, USA ******************************* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org