<VV> Re: Dwelling on dwell....

[Chris & Bill Strickland]

Opinions will vary on this but -- set the gap!

It is my opinion, as a professional mechanic who worked in the era of  
points generated ignitions, that of the two specs, gap vs dwell, if you 
didn't get the gap set wide enough, they would be back shortly for a new 
set of points cause the old ones would burn up from the arcing.  .016 
(matchbook cover) is sort of a minimum gap setting if you have a good 
condenser and conventional coil -- pretty much true of any points fired 
ignition -- lawmowers, garden tractors, Corvairs, Lucas, Bosch, 
especially Beetles, where you could actually hear the chirping of an 
unlubed set of points as the bug drove past.  If the points are arcing, 
dwell readings really don't mean anything, even if your meter works 
under those conditions -- your coil won't.

If you have to have a gap of .013 to get the dwell you want, there is 
probably something besides the points in the distributor showing some 
evidence of wear -- you need to get it identified and fixed.  Dwell is a 
nice check on a properly gapped set of points to see that everything is 
working correctly inside the distributor with engine running.

Bill Strickland