dfirestone

I'll check when I get home this evening & get back to you. Dave

Hi Arne -- the lever I'm referring to is the metal piece that attaches to the vacuum advance spring -- it has what looks like a small pin protruberance on the top. And the movement I mentioned isn't the normal movement of the points to set the gap; I can twist the whole point assembly manually even though it's completely secured with the two set screws.

I originally posted this under "electrical", but it belongs here. I need help. This may sound dumb, but I notice that when I turn the elliptical adjusting screw to set the point gap, the whole point set will sometimes move. When that happens, a spring near the vacuum advance pops the lever up. When that lever is in the down position, I get no spark through the distributor, but I can't seem to get the dwell angle or the gap right when the lever is down. My shop manual is mum on this. What's happening??

This may sound dumb, but I notice that when I turn the elliptical adjusting screw to set the point gap, the whole point set will sometimes move. When that happens, a spring near the vacuum advance pops the lever up. When that lever is in the down position, I get no spark through the distributor, but I can't seem to get the dwell angle or the gap right when the lever is down. My shop manual is mum on this. What's happening??

No, oil pump hasn't been off. I like the "low tech" approach you suggest -- I'll try it this evening.

Thanks, guys -- and I think the problem must lie inside the distributor. I replaced the cap and rotor, the wires are only a year old, and all the wires are attached to the correct plugs. My timing light is low-tech inductive, the same one I've used for years, and I removed and plugged the vacuum hose before checking the timing. The timing is actually advanced, not retarded, and I can't retard it down to TDC, much less 5 degrees BTDC. Any more thoughts?

Hi all -- I'm new to the forum and trying to get my 71 Z-car running right again. In tuning it up, I installed new points but now can't get the timing anywhere near right. Turning the dizzy as far as I can, I'm still 10-15 degrees after TDC. The dwell angle shows to be correct (35-41 d egrees per my shop manual). Any ideas??? Thanks!