[T3] Ignition on with points closed.

[Don Robertson]

Having the ignition on for any appreciable amount of time when the 
points are closed will burn the points.  If you need the ignition on, 
pop the distributor cap and turn the engine so the points are open, 
then there will be no harm.  Or disconnect the wire that goes from 
the coil to the distributor.

A bad condenser will also cause the points to burn quickly, but is a 
rare occurrence, unless of course the condenser is a new Chinese one.

At 08:12 AM 29/03/2016, you wrote:
>Ignition on without the engine turning will either be powering the coil or
>not, depending on whether the points are open or closed. It won't have done
>any harm to the points either way.  Is the heel and cam lubricated?  High
>performance ignition coils tend to produce more erosion of the points.
>
>Keith says your sensor for AFR is not sited correctly (or is that someone
>else?) - seems to me if he's right you're placing too much reliance on its
>readings.  MPG over a decent distance must be a better guide.  Plug colour
>too will help, as will feel of the engine response.
>
>My FI Fastback performance is very sensitive to timing, but it has the twin
>vac advance (as does my twin carb Variant, but that doesn't seem so
>sensitive).  When it was hunting, I enrichened the MPS slightly, then
>reduced it again a few months later when a CO meter showed it was around 1%.
>It went back down to less than 0.5% and no hunting!
>
>Keep enjoying driving it, and let it grow old gracefully!
>
>I used to worry about the sound of my 7-year-old Beetle engine 50 years ago,
>so my parents bought me a Blaupunkt radio for my 21st birthday! A few months
>later at 50,000 miles I had to have a new camshaft as two cam followers had
>worn through to the oilway - expensive!  Ah, the joys of VW motoring back
>then, and I am still committed to them!
>
>Dave
>UK VW Type 3&4 Club
>===================
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: type3-vwtype3.org [mailto:type3-vwtype3.org-bounces at lists.vwtype3.org]
>On Behalf Of Daniel Nohejl
>Sent: 29 March 2016 12:16
>To: type3 at vwtype3.org
>Subject: Re: [T3] Bad day at the (FI) office
>
>snipped
>
>Anyway, in general, things seem to be better. We went away over the weekend
>and on the way out of town, we leaned out the MPS a wee bit closer towards
>its original position. Our highway cruise AFR is kind of lean..anywhere from
>14.5 to 16.5 but our MPG over the 260 miles was a modest 25.8. I imagine if
>we were too lean, our MPG would have been much higher.
>
>Toward the end of the trip, I started noticing that the idle AFR went back
>to rich even though we hadn't touched it again and that the idle sounded too
>high. When we got home, we took out the dwell meter and timing light. First,
>the idle was at 1020 rpm so we brought it down to 850 but it was unstable
>and hunted slightly so we brought it up to around 900 which is where it
>seems happiest. We noted that the dwell had changed from 48* to 52* in 1600
>miles. I've never had that happen before. Also, the timing was a few degrees
>advanced..closer to the second timing mark than the first. We tried to reset
>the points but there was such a big tit on one side that it was hard to get
>the feeler gauge through so we just put in new points and re-did the timing.
>Once we did that, the idle AFR went from 11.5 to 13. Seems like the advanced
>timing was messing up the MPS and the a/f mixture.
>
>I've yet to have a set of points go bad on me in only 1600 miles.
>Admittedly, I only have about 70,000 miles of VW driving under my belt but
>still..Part of me wonders if repeatedly having the key in the ignition in
>the on position while toggling the fuel pump prime switch hastened the death
>of these points. Maybe I can power the switch from an always hot fuse and
>see what happens?
>
>
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Don Robertson - (905) 566-0000
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