<VV> Dual Points-advantages?

[Jim Burkhard]

I think you mean lengthen the duration of the *dwell*. 
Actual spark duration depends on more than that and won't 
necessarily change.

Dual point distributors were kind neat 30+ years ago, 
especially on 8 cylinder engines where the distributor cam 
lobes (= dwell) get pretty short. Nowadays, any advantage 
they used to offer is well surpassed by many electronic 
ignitions, especially the ones that provide active dwell 
control like Pertonix II and Safeguard (and Safeguard 
carries a pile more feaures as well).  Not much reason to 
run a dual point distributor anymore unless you want to 
build the car as a retro-only race car or something.

best regards-
J

Shaun wrote:
> Nope. They both work every revolution. The advantage is that they
> effectively lengthen the duration of the spark. If you look closely, you'll
> see that the points are not exactly opposite each other, they are a few
> degrees off of 180 (not sure exactly how much) but they both trigger the
> coil on the same firing stroke.
> 
> yea, Vairily ... Shaun