I'm having a brain fart. For the life of me, I don't recall how to hook up a dwell meter on an AMC that I'm working on. I haven't installed a set of points probably since the early 80's, maybe even the late 70's. I'm thinking positive to battery positive and negative to coil negative, or do I hook positive to the positive side of the coil? 38 years as a professional mechanic and I can't remember how to set dwell! I may need to retire!
I had the same problem a few months ago. Google is your friend! Red lead from the meter to the negative side of coil, black lead from meter to good ground.
Thanks. I did Google it before I looked like an idiot and asked you guys. I saw at least 3 different ways to hook up the meter and I get a different dwell reading with different hook ups. Thanks again.
They sit on the shelf so long it’s easy to forget. I won’t tell you how long I played with it before I gave into the almighty google
Dwell meter warning. Most of the dwell meters we've had for the last 40 years are shot.. The capacitors dry out and you will get false reading.. Few years ago I found 3 old meters all 3 gave differ readings.. I went to Orileys and bought a. https://www.boschdiagnostics.com/diy/products/professional-multimeter.
My dwell use red to bat+ black to bat- green to coil+, just like I would be reading rpms, just flip the switch to read dwell
I agree with Bob in Arlington. Before putting too much faith in an old dwell meter, test it against a known good one.
I believe that my dwell meter is fine, my memory isn't. It's a Snap-on from the 80's. I actually used it 2 years ago to set the mixture control dwell on a 1986 Regal that I overhauled the carburetor on. When setting the MC dwell, you need an analog meter so you can watch the average dwell. It would be almost impossible to do with a digital meter.
I had to google it too when I rediscovered my dwell meter. It's died so I either buy a new one or just go for electronic ignition.
Oh, yeah! Those were some dark days. Repairing feedback carbs of the 80’s back in the 80’s and 90’s made it real difficult to earn a living at, esp flat rate. Seems like it was a dance between the main air bleed adjustment and idle mixture screws to get the dwell anywhere near acceptable. That and the up-stop adjustment for the primary metering rods made for some fun times. The little o-rings on the main air bleed were always dry-rotted. And those were just GM. Throw in a feedback Mikuni on a Honda and those feedback Holley 2bbls on the Kcars and Kvans and I may have a relapse and need therapy again just thinking about it.
Im talking about the capacitors.. They dry out.. I dont care what country they are made in... A capacitor is like a battery. they die... Guess why you dont see 30 year old cars as much on the road.. as you see 40+ year olds. newer the car more capacitors..
Ok, now I’m curious. What capacitors are you seeing on vehicles that are failing? A long time ago, we used to see leaking caps in ECU’s on Asian vehicles (80’s - 90’s), but I wouldn’t know what a dry capacitor is.
Yes. The caps Im referring are Im the PCMs & ECUs...By the way thanks for reminding of the name of the part.. Capacitors are in all electronics not just under the distributor like many think.. Dodge ECUs were one the the worst. They had a TBI type EFI system that when you bought the truck new it got good MPGs. lets say 15mpg. after a few years the truck would drop down to 10mpg.. Average person thought motor is waring out .. But if you were able to find a good ECM with same Part number put it on the truck the milage would go up.. nothing else swapped.. but only for a short time. before that one would fade.. not die but fad to 10mpg Ask any Stereo or ham radio guy that you know. about Caps fading, drying, and flat out fails.. to the naked eye most caps look good. but proper test equipment test the truth.. For the heck of it. Got any old house stereo speaker from the 70s..80s replace the caps with new ones. Give them caps 20 hrs run time (brake in time) you'll be amazed how much better they sound.. As long as the speaker foams are good..
