Dwell meter?

They actually sold a special file for points? I never knew. I’ve never filed a point set either.

You commented on replacing brushes in generators. In eralier generations things were designed to be repairable without special manufacturer’s jigs and tooling, but many today are not. And many are cheaper to just replace. In many cases if one part needs replacing you have to buy a whole subassembly and it ends up being more expensive than buying a complete replacement unit…if the subassembly can be bought at all.

It’s kind of like an instrument cluster. If the speedo breaks you have to buy the entire cluster. And they’re ultrasonically welded together, so the only way to disassemble them is to destroy them.

Same place for my dwell/tach. Which reminds me (uh-oh, I know), anybody have the remote starter control (a push for on switch on one end of 6’ of 2-strand wire, 2 alligator clips on the other)? I’d use that to turn over the engine while adjusting the points with a screwdriver to get the proper dwell reading. Of course, the GM distributors with the window didn’t need that approach…

Of course I have a dwell/tach meter. And a timing light, oscilloscope, feeler gauges, dwell adjuster wrench for GM, bent box end wrench for Ford distributors, remote starter switch, vacuum gauge, compression gauge,…
I also own a 1938 La Salle which benefits from all these cute toys.

On the first timing light I owned, I didn’t go for the inductive style. Instead, it was “in-line”: You pulled the wire off the cap, put in a thing that looked like a spring, and put the plug wire on top of that, and you’d connect the other wire to ground. That was the timing light connection.

To test the circuit, you’d grasp the frame firmly and touch the spring part.

Okay, now I’m lying.

My first one had that spring thing too. But that was before overhead cams put plugs deep into tubes. Although I suppose that if there were still distributors the distributor end of the wire could be used.

My TR-3 has a points feeler gauge attached to a small screwdriver that has the same shape as a key. Its riveted onto the flat thumb screwdriver and swings out to do a quick points adjustment.I keep it on the car’s key chain.

Just curious and not really directed at you, but how do you think you would have done if your time in history to be a mechanic was,lets say 1930? Those guys had to do so much more with so much less.How about walking out on a wing strut and putting oil in an engine,while the plane was in the air?

I thought things were really great when I bought an inductively coupled timing light that also had an advance dial. You ran the engine up and turned the knob until the mark was on zero then noted the reading on the dial, this was your total advance. Knowing total advance was very important for air cooled VW’s.