Last year I took my dwell meter to e-cycling. Good riddance.
I like the bit about going into an auto parts store and asking for a dwell meter, only to get a blank stare. Few people anymore, even mechanics, know what dwell is, or points for that matter. Many don’t even know how to properly set spark plug gap and just get the Bosch plugs with the preset gap. Incidentally, I have checked some of those and found them to be improperly gapped. I guess they figure as long as it runs, it’s good enough.
Are these autotransformers similar to the autotransformer used in tube type car radios through the 1950’s? In those radios, we had a pulsator or vibrator that fed pulsating 6 volts (or 12 volts in the more modern cars) and these autotransformers stepped the pulsating voltage up to 90-200 volts for the tube plates.
“You might be in the same league of quality old-time mechanics”.
Thank you for the compliment. However, I think I specialized in rounding off bolt heads and nuts, and breaking off bolts. I am also very good at turning the air blue when things don’t work out as they should when I am doing automobile repairs.
We used to set ignition points with a thin dime. Using a matchbook cover is even cheaper and you get all these added bonuses.
“I like the bit about going into an auto parts store and asking for a dwell meter, only to get a blank stare.”
You should walk into a jewelry store with a spring driven watch. There are very few old time watchmakers around any more. If the jewelry store can’t change the battery to make the watch work, you are out of luck.
The passage of time has eliminated or decrease many of the bad things from those days also, it is not all doom and gloom over not getting a chance to use your dwell meter. One thing I do miss that the 60’s and 70’s had plenty of, and that would be oppourtunities for the lower middle class.
Not only do I still have a dwell meter & timing light, but I’m still driving the cars that need them to keep in tune ! Points & carbs forever !
In electronics, we ran into the same problem. In the 80’s and 90’s, the kids coming in had zero time on tube theory. Schools told them they would never need it. Um, yeah, right.
One new kid, his first job was setting up CRT’s (Cathode Ray Tubes) for a cockpit display for a military aircraft. They’d put the bare CRT in a mount, connect the wires to a tester, and then mount and align the yoke, then put on adhesive to lock the yoke in place.
Very few failures. But, one day he came and asked me for help. The CRT didn’t work. I grabbed an old Triplett VOM and ran it down the leads, and told him reject the CRT to the manufacturer for shorted G2. Of course, he had no idea what I was telling him…
He asked how I knew what it was supposed to be. I explained G1 a small minus voltage, G2 a plus voltage of several hundred. Then, I told him that was just basic tube theory.
I was talking to my son-in-law a few years ago. Works as a teacher, has an EE. He mentioned they were making expensive tube stereo systems, because they had higher quality sound. I soon realized he knew no more about tubes than our new techs had, in the 90’s.
I went over to a book case and pulled out an RCA tube manual I got from Central Tech in 1960 or so.
He was impressed. Turns out he had no idea how tubes worked, zip. After some thought,I gave it to him. He has done some repair work for rich folks who have tube stereos. the factory gets like a thousand dollars for minor repairs, and he does it mostly for fun. I had assumed they used some new fangled tubes, but no. Same old tubes from the 60’s. I understand Russia makes good tubes today.
Schools are weird that way. In the 70’s, I worked on a radar altimeter for a few months. The other tech was told in electronics school he would probably never see anything above 400MHZ except the beam out of a flashlight. His first project was a 4.3 GHZ radar altimeter. Heh, heh. He grew up quick.
Back in the 70s on my own dime and time I took an electronics course that was heavy on vacuum tube operation. It was pretty fascinating stuff but I’ve forgotten much of what was learned.
In the music world vacuum tube amplifiers are far superior to solid state amps, both in sound and (ouch) price.
Some solid state amps are designed to try and obtain a tube sound and while decent they’re still not the real deal.
Some people take the vacuum tube amps out of old organs and build guitar amplifiers out of them.
He was impressed. Turns out he had no idea how tubes worked, zip. After some thought,I gave it to him. He has done some repair work for rich folks who have tube stereos. the factory gets like a thousand dollars for minor repairs, and he does it mostly for fun. I had assumed they used some new fangled tubes, but no. Same old tubes from the 60’s. I understand Russia makes good tubes today.
Tube sound equipment is alive and well. And if you have efficient speakers…tubes will give you awesome sound that only SS amps costing thousands more can equal. There are some exotic tube amps, but you can get some extremely good tube amps for under $2000. And they are NOT that difficult to work on. The circuit layout is fairly simple.
One of the most popular tubes is the WE-300b. In fact it’s so popular they re-opened the plant about 10 years where they were making that tube in the 60’s. Been closed for about 40 years.
As for Russian Tubes…Them and the Chinese tubes are OK…but not great. The Chinese were making the 300B tube for years…but the new(r) WE-300B is by far a better tube.
I agree the sound is better…but not good use for many of today’s inefficient speakers. Those tubes from the 60’s were only putting out about 12 watts…some as high as 25 watts.
This thread and the one where the guy with the civic was pondering a manual to auto trans swap just because of his daughters not wanting to learn how to drive a manual are similar. I am only 38yrs old and almost everything I know (no matter what we are talking about) I learned from an older person growing up. I learned all the fundamentals of each discipline I took on…and as years passed it was always good to know that what I knew now was because it was built upon the fundamentals…If you dont have the fundamentals then you really dont know what you are talking about and you cant effectively think “outside the box”…it applies to so many things…when you learn the basics you will be infinitely sharper than someone who does not…it all starts there…
We are becoming a nation of NINNIES…I dont like it. I find it especially funny to watch grown men running around on a construction site looking for someone who knows how to drive a manual trans…so they can move the backhoe or manual pickup out of the way of another piece of equipment…Ninny
Right?
My 13 year old nephew can drive a manual trans vehicle (you know, drive on his Dad’s private property), shoot and field dress a deer and remove malware from his computer. I say, have a bit of faith in the youngins, some are on the ball (and whip me real good in Crysis,Crysis is a computer game)
Do you remember when a vtvm vacuum tube volt meters got upgraded to a tvm transistorized volt meter? How about my first portable radio, I think it boasted it was a 6 transistor!
Thats great to hear…I hate to hear stories of how little the young bucks know these days…its all up to us to teach, so…
No…I always owned a Transistor volt Meter. In fact the first one I owned we had to build in class (it was a kit from Radio Shack). And I still have it.
.0016 was closer to 55 degrees dwell “oldschool”. Most 4 bangers were 55 degrees dwell.VW’s were 60 degrees dwell. 8 cylinders were 32 degrees dwell.
Yeah, I’ve got thousands of obsolete tools in my tool box. Fiat valve adjustment tools. Lancia, Bricklin,Peugeot, Alpha,Deloreon ,Jaguar, Triumph , etc,etc… Most mechanics accumulate $80-100 in tools during a career.Most people don’t realize the expense involved in tools needed to repair vehicles or the wide variety needed.
Just to stay current, I spend $3500 annually in tools
Yep, I still have a dwell/tachometer as well as a VOM. I have not used the dwell meter in a long time.
Another, lost useage tool is the grease gun. I do have one fitting on an lawn edger but that is about it. Although I use the gun as a dispenser now, the grease goes solid before I can use it up.
Sorry, not familiar with that particular circuit. Todays coils do have a separate primary and secondary, but they are connected with a common H0X0 lead that is grounded. Not sure why some references still call them an autotransformer, though they don’t meet the exact definition of one.
BTW, none of this applies to lost spark systems, I don’t know how those coils are wound but I suspect the primary and secondary are isolated from each other.