The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Somebody please explain point gap..

Ok.. so the doo dad that the rotor sits on spins around.. and this spring loaded deal (which I assume is called the "points") "rides" on this.. causing the "points" to open and close.

Now I hear about setting this "gap".. what does that mean? Does that mean the gap when the contact is open, or the gap when it is "closed"?

Now I just assumed that the little contacts were supposed to touch.. but maybe not, and the "gap" is how far away they should be when they're the closest?

Fumblin46,

The "gap" is set when the contacts are fully open.

That is to say, that the "lobe" that pushes them is at it's highest point against the "follower" on the lever.

Spark occurs when there is no continuity between the contact "points".

Hope this helps.

try this:
http://home.earthlink.net/~goodspeeds/POINTS.HTM

-RT1

Ok.. so the "gap" is the maximum amount of distance between the two contacts.. it will go from a direct short to this maximum.

Now the question is, what should the gap setting be on a 1946 216cid motor?

Fumblin as an old rule of thumb the thickness of a matchbook cover (or 19 thousanths) Regards Steve sr.

Fumblin, Once set and running, toss a finger nail file in the glove box.

I've been caught more than once, where I needed to clean up the points to get it restarted.

Well I "borrowed" the coil, cap, rotor, wires, points, and condensor off the '46 2 ton to put on the 1/2 ton.. I had spark on the #1 plug, but it wasn't popping with gas dumped in the carb.. thought i'd make sure I had the points set right and determined I really wasnt sure what I was doing with them!

I don't usually like to "borrow" parts off a running vehicle, but I wanted to get a handle on what all I needed to have so I wasn't making multiple trips to the parts store (that and my budget for such things is just about blown till the middle of next month)

So i'll set the points using the "matchbook method" and in a few hours when that battery is at a full charge, i'll dump some gas in the carb and crank her over and see what happens.

Hopefully i'll get some promising pops.. i've got a 1 gallon gas can rigged with a fitting for use as a temp fuel supply and go from there.

Fumblin; Glad to see ya also got her freed up and spinning over.But just as a suggestion ,You can use a little marvel mystery oil in the cyls to help free up the rings that still could be stuck in the ring lands of those Cast pistons Regard,s Steve Sr.

Fumblin,
Keep the fire extinguisher handy!


Stuart.

While we're talkin' point gap... Can anyone tell me the dwell for a '54 235?

I had a Buick Regal years ago that we put a new fuel pump and lines on.. I told my buddy to put some gas in the carb and I hopped in to start it.

Well I dunno if the guy had Parkinsons or what, but he got gas all over the engine, all over the carb.. probably got more gas all in the engine compartment than he did in the carb.

Well I got to crankin' the motor and BOOM.. a big ole fireball shot out the carb, and ignited the gas spilled all over the engine.

Four or five stratigically placed shovel fulls of dirt put out the flames.. and the motor kept on a runnin'.

Dwell on all 6 cyl is 31 degrees. Here is a good resource for these #s