Thanks Jeff. This is great info. Appreciate your time

You can set the dwell on a ford by removing the cap & rotor slightly loosen the point screw, attach your dwell meter turn the key on and use a remote starter and adjust the dwell while it's turning over. Tighten the set screw put the cap & rotor back on and double check that the dwell is correct. I've started doing this on my first car a 1960 ford fairlane with a 292 in the early 70's

Still have my dwell meter which I purchased from K-Mart in 1970s to set points on my 1972 Chevelle. Good old days...

Thank you fir the great video

I remember my first car with points a 68 cougar 289, I'm like what is that? My old man showed me how to gap them with a match book. My new toy is a 65 Falcon 289(first classic car in 20 years.). It has points also but I think I'm going to go Pertronix when it's time to tune it up. I would like to see a video on replacing flat tappet lifters or what to do if one is clacking (mine comes and goes at idle). Thanks for the videos, learning a lot of classic mechanics. I worked on Nissans for 22 years and recently retired. Finally finding a use for all those fractional tools. LOL

Retired Catapiller Heavy Equipment Mechanic: I recommend when dwell is off on points. I use a points file. Make a flat surface again on both sides. Then set points again. Longer life, then just gap and go. God bless

Thanks for the video, I am working on a friend's GTO and haven't messed with a points distributor in years. How many years? Well I have the exact same Craftsmen meter that I also bought when I was in high school!

I believe that 1 degree dwell is 1 degree of timing. So you lost 6 degrees of timing which is probably why it started running a little rough. Less dwell = wider gap = advanced timing

Question: where exactly are you attaching/ contacting the leads of the multimeter (dwellmeter)?

Ok. Snug the pivoting screw.Atach the dwell meter to the primary lead wire.Snug the front point screw. Reach over with your left hand and cross over the solinoid,or put a starter button on it.prepare to put a flat blade screw driver. In the slot . Turn your ignition on ,crank the engine .now while looking at your dwell meter turn your points to about 27 degrees. Stop. Tighten your points. .it may take you a time or to but it's easy. But again any body using points in the 21st century .JUST ISNT THINKING THINGS THROUGH.

Distributer rotation is easy look at the points, the cam will contact the wear block from the back side of the points ( the side away from the contact points). ).

Cheap HEI for Ford available on eBay. Maybe a good video idea? Thanks for your videos. I appreciate them.

Also on the firing order if someone switched out the cam you could either have a 351 Windsor cam and a 302 or vice versa which do you would have to use whatever the firing order is that's for that cam

Please help me with this points gap. Is it safe to assume that if my dwell is right on at 30 then my points are set correctly? In other words, my GM Dist has the window for setting my points gap so I am assuming if I get the points close to the proper gap and I set the dwell to the factory setting of 30 then I’m done! Right? Or, do I have to gap the points perfect and then set the dwell? Please help this less than shadetree mechanic.

For some unknown reason Ford liked and still does like to mess with people when working on anything they manufacturer, at least they were kind enough to put the distributor on the front of the engine. Except the Y. That being said the distributors are all very different as every V8 Ford made. If you are simply swapping out old to new just make sure you have the exact part before you cram it into the hole. Rebuilt stuff can easily be mislabeled or boxed. Just because is looks close doesn’t mean its right. If you are upgrading to an aftermarket electronic ignition double check visually and measure the unit to verify it is in fact the correct part. The small block Ford distributor changed year to year throughout its productions and they don’t all convert year to year especially into the 70’s and 80’s. FE is all the same and the 335 and 385 series distributor will all cross over, remarkably enough. When buying aftermarket distributors its a crap shoot. I’ve had pretty good luck with Mallory and Accel fitting and working well and Ive had mixed results with petronix. MSD has junk electronics but well machined parts. Stay away from the cheap Chinese units. The price may be tempting but you will end up changing out the guts in short order, ending up costing more than buying a quality American unit. I don’t touch Chryslers but the 70’s junk was a bag full of money nuts, this much I know. Chevrolet one size fits all SBC and BBC v8’s. Other GM junk is convertible to Chevy but not all and not always. Make sure you have the correct gear on the distributor based on the cam type. I hope this adds to Jeff’s excellent tutorial on the subject.

Been trying to figure out dwell vs point gap for many years, now I know

Or if you have a helper you could leave the cap and rotor off, have your helper turn on the key and turn over the engine while you adjust the dwell with your screwdriver. Tighten the set screw, replace the rotor and cap and be on your way.

Jeff, I got the same Sears Tach/ Dwell/ Voltmeter back when I was in Automotive Class in High School! SOOOoo... I know how freaking old you are :) Still works :) Scott G nailed it! Love the Distributor at the front of the motors... So us Old Guys can still work on them; As a life long Ford Guy you learn what works on any given year of Ford! Love my 71' 72's...

Gap gets it ballpark/running ok. Dwell meter gets it right. I always had to tweak my points a little when replacing - I would be out 2 to 4 degrees on dwell most times.

I don't remember how I would hook up my Dwell meter of my Timing lite since last using them back in the late 1960s. I hoped you would show that. I have the allen head flexible screwdriver to adjust the dwell, and you're right GM and the slide door on the side of the distributer. I even have the tall hand wrench for adjusting the timing, a nice tool to have.

well explained & demonstrated, but what if you change/swap a camshaft, then you cant just refer to the manual for what the correct dwell angle should be, so how do u work it out ? and what about dwell angle on a gm hei ? can dwell be checked on a hei, yes it can, can it be adjusted ?

You can set the dwell with the engine cranking with the starter. Set to 30 degrees cranking. Replace the cap and adjust ignition timing because dwell effects timing.

lol Consider yourself lucky my 292 Y8 on my '56 ford has the dist on the back of the engine a complete pain to get to. but the bright side is its easy to rotate the engine by hand to get right on the lobe.

Why I love running the Ford Racing plug wires they are numbered. Only one I have problem with is my 292 Y8, that old ford I need a new dist as my load-o-matic is a bit sticky I think but I don't know if I want to stick with points or if I could possibly wire it up to look like points with a petronix.

Great video. Something I was reminded of/re-learned the hard way is that changing the point gap changes timing. If I remember correctly, moving to higher dwell numbers will result in retarded timing, so if you change anything, you might need to check and possibly reset your base timing.

If you change point gap /dwell the timing will need reset.

You van check dwell off the starter. So you don't have to keep taking the cap on and off. Pull the coil wire. Remove the cap. Hook up thr meter and have someone turn thr motor over. Ir use a remote starter button.

After changes are made to point gap or dwell, the timing changes so that also needs reset.

Lol, didn't even show how to hook the dwell meter. You got me.onto another video!

I don't know if it's possible but would it be possible just to drill a hole into the side of the distributor where needed on a Ford and just put a rubber stop in the hole that was drilled when not using it to adjust?

Need help with 84 chevy k10 have engine crossmember cracked should I weld or get new one

Ever make any videos installing and setting up Edelbrock carbs ? Thanks

Can you show us how to run a full 12 volt wiring on the old mustangs

what wire did you put where on the dwell meter

So in an ideal world, in new vehicle, setting the points per spec will give a dwell per spec, But as everything ages points set to spec do not result in a dwell set to spec, therefore adjust the points to give you a correct dwell? Dwell is more important that actual point gap??

Once you understand Ford's there easy to work on.

Was it me or did I See Spark jumping on that last part of the video the last cylinder all the way back against the firewall?

Ofcourse I grew up in a Ford dealer ship.

At least Ford did one good thing is that they have the distributor at the front of the engine. I hate mine cause it's at the rear.

5:09 chevys with a distributor at least.

You talk about what ford and GM do, but what about Chrysler?

Spark plug wire shorting to ground...right rear plug can't be the only one that noticed that..you missed tons of steps🙄

Points......LOL.??? AMATUERS.

Ford put the distributor in the front thinking it'll be easier for the mechanics. Then the head of service said No No No you have to make it difficult so we will now bury that distributor in amongst hoses wires and brackets and we will force you to remove the cap for every setting change. And will will not standardize anything. We will not be like the kind GM engineers and make all engines in a brand use the same bellhousing pattern. We will not use the same tailight wiring colors for 50+ years on every car. We will not make small block to big blocks simple like GM..... Oh and we can't forget 18436572

Can not like this video enough.......

Good info. I kind I wish you guys would cut some of the banter and jokes and just dive right into the tech. This video was actually better than most of yours in that regard. No offense. Just the $0.02 of someone with a very short attention span who usually watches car vids to learn something / find helpful information as opposed to watching for entertainment value.

Jesus get to the damn point!

Far, Far, Far worse then CW or CCW is the perspective of what the mfg is basing that on. Either looking at it as if you were on the engine block or looking at as if you are looking into the engine bay. They never ever Freak'in state this and it the cause of alot of mess ups...........just say'in....

1st three minutes....useless

1 min video stretched out to 16 mins. Chock full of sales pitches and filler.