[T3] Adjusting point contact alignment ?

[William Jahn]

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

From: Jim Adney
Sent: Monday, March 18, 2019 9:28 AM
To: type3 at vwtype3.org
Subject: Re: [T3] Adjusting point contact alignment ?

On 17 Mar 2019 at 19:21, William Jahn wrote:

> Even though the Bosch points I got IMHO are crap . It´s been so long I forgot how to align the contacts. I think I used to do it before I installed them yet I can´t remember what I did in 97 . It seems adjusting the alignment with them installed would place a bit of force on the dist plate or the adjustment screw .
> 
>  What is the best and safest way? Bentley states after , I simply can´t recall .

I've never adjusted points to make them more parallel than they come out of 
the package, and I don't see anything in the Bentley suggesting that we 
should do so. My impression is that the only adjustment they are talking 
about is the gap/dwell. The contacts are slightly domed, making contact 
reliable in spite of imperfect alignment. There's no advantage to having that 
point of contact be perfectly centered. The electrons don't care.

 In the Bentley engine section page 52 bottom left. Jim I always adjusted the fixed contact so the contacts at least were as close to parallel as possible. Not that they always stay centered since there is some play in the pivot they will move a bit. The reason is , which is based on these new Bosch points I got . On these the contacts are just touching on the very edge at the adjustment slot end which makes setting the point gap next to impossible. On top of this since I have the stock system I know they will not last long.

 

I agree that the screwdriver notch always seems to be in the wrong place to 
make a good dwell adjustment.

 On the new Bosch points it’s even worse than the original ones.

OTOH, it's probably important that the base of the contact  frame be flat. We 
don't want that to rock as the points move.

 This is also an issue with these new points , the base is not flat , it’s concave on the bottom center , the deep point is centered between the screw hole and pin then rises up at the contact edge. 

If the rubbing block doesn't touch down evenly, that will wear and be 
annoying until it wears into full engagement. Yeah, that would be annoying, 
but, OTOH, all rubbing blocks wear a bit faster at first, until they get a bit of a 
flat spot that wears slowly. That's one more reason why I like the old Delta 
CDI systems that I have, since my points now last almost forever. There's no 
pitting, no arcing, and the only thing that ever fails is that the wire eventually 
flexes and breaks inside the insulation, but that takes many 10s of 
thousands of miles.

 The rubbing block on these new points is over twice as tall as the old Bosch points. I don’t put many miles on this car at all yet the way these new Bosch made in Mexico points are made I would not use them or trust them. I don’t know what a Delta CDI system is. 

 Until I find better points I’ll stick with the Pertronix . I had hoped the points being made now were at least decent , I was completely wrong. It’s really disappointing and since they were shipped it’s not worth the effort to send them back. 

William

-- 
*******************************
Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
*******************************

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