Technical Dwell Meters

Back in the day I did tune ups with a dwell meter ,timing light and a vacuum guage. And you would be surprised how many tines I discovered a bad vacuum advance. Today I know where two timing lights are covered in dust . haven't seen my dwell meter in decades. The 283 in the 55 in my avatar has points . I adjust them by the adjust to stumble and back off a half turn. the timing I advance until it kicks back on the starter. then back off until it don't. I still used a vacuum guage to adjust the carb idle mix screws. my son Chris had a dirt bike. It wasn't firing. electronic ignition. He built up a lobe on the shaft with JB weld. screwed a set of chevy points to the side. and adjusted till it ran pretty good. The points where out in the open. He would get his leg too close and get a shock or 50 LOL. the cover wasn't deep enough after he installed the points. A neighbor who worked at the Tool Box Factory took the cover to work and got the machinist to machine out a aluminum spacer to fix it.

 

That's hilarious!

 

I have a Craftsman engine analyzer I got from an old hot rodder that's never been used as "he couldn't figure out how to work the damn thing". Been under my bench for several years collecting dust.

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Radio Shack house brand... At one point they had pretty decent stuff, but towards the end their quality really went south. Bought some phone jacks, got home 3 out of 4 were defective. Went back, checked them with a meter before leaving the store. Had to open 6 packages of 2 to get 4 good ones... the clerk wasn't happy...

 

This is a gauge from the “ Tune Master “ kit . Kal Tool brand . These are built tank tough . There are a few on EBay at this time . As I said the “ Tune Master , has tach/dwell , vacuum , fuel pump pressure , charge , and a timing light in a steel box to hold them up so they are easy to read . I’ll get a photo over the week end . Pretty busy at the moment , popped a head gasket on the Cummins powered Power Wagon . Time for head studs .

 

I've seen that one. There are a lot of different old dwell meters out there. What else ya got?

 

IT WORKS!

 

Radio Shack

 

Interesting.

We'd just install a new set of points and give them about .018 gap and call it good. When I got my first dwell meter from the tractor store (age 15), I'd use an ALLEN wrench through the window and adjust the dwell while it was running.

 

I have a few


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I just bought the new Innova 'Pro' Timing light and it'll split screen showing Dwell & Rpm in the timing light. I haven't used the dwell feature yet, I just got it last week and need to find a kid to explain how all that digital stuff works.

 

Still have this Sonco my dad taught me to use back in the 60's.

 

I have a couple, a Kal tool from the 60's that is part of a set, and this Sun 1015 unit I picked up for $150.00 off Craigs List. The individual selling it had no power in the barn it was in to see if it worked. Lucky me everything works fine.
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