Okay I know that to many of you the subject line is not earth shattering but
to a person who failed auto shop it is very meaningful.
Here is what I managed to do: Over the weekend I managed to replace my
points with a Crane solid state ignition system. There were a few hiccups
like no grommet. and one small remaining problem.
Installation was pretty straight forward after getting out the old points.
condenser, rotor button and not dropping anything inside the distributor. I
found the right shutter wheel and installed the pickup just like the book
said. Well almost there were two mounting feet and six shutters to choose
from. I thought I had almost picked up the wrong foot but just had to turn
the pickup over. The instructions were correct about static timing settings
and it did spark as advertised. Once everything was set up correctly the
engine actually started !! I was just amazed.
The gotchas are: I had to drill out the rivet from the plastic piece that
fits in the rotor cap for the wires to pass through as there was no rubber
grommet. I have started to put liquid wrench on the adjustment vernier as it
very rusty and would not move thereby making it impossible to fine tune the
setting. With a timing light it appears that I am at 15 degrees -
interesting that the manual says 16 and the marks are in fives - and I will
see if needs adjusting in the coming weekend.
The one problem, that was present before and remains, is that the tachometer
does not work. Unlike the Smiths manual description and pictures I have a
solid state tachometer and not the current sensing loop style.
Symptoms are that the needle pegs and then returns to zero when the motor is
running. Sometimes it does not even move off of zero and on occasion it
appears to work then pegs. Any and all information about what this might be
will be appreciated.
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