[T3] Dist trigger points?

[William Jahn]

Jim :
 I'll have to check which way the trigger point plate is . I don't recall .
I can check. I would think they  should be perpendicular. I just recall
there was a bit of wear on the plate from the dist trigger point cam. I
think it was the area opposite the plug. Yet that might have been caused
because that dist needed new fiber washers. I had two other units I wanted
to rebuild . I have the steel shims and fiber washers. All three set have
the so called shields and the dist body has the notches to allow the newer
trigger point pivot height to clear.

On Sun, Sep 11, 2022 at 11:19 AM Jim Adney <jadney at vwtype3.org> wrote:

> On 10 Sep 2022 at 21:58, William Jahn wrote:
>
> > I noticed the three sets I have. On all of them if you look at the curved
> > plate that is secured to the dist body and then look at the plate the
> > trigger points are secured to the two are not at a 90 degree angle. Is
> > there a reason for this? One set I got new in 2002 and it's the same way.
>
> I just looked at 3 sets that I have, and they all look perpendicular to
> me. I
> don't think there's any reason for them to be otherwise.
>
> You don't say which way they are bent. The U-shaped inner plate actually
> rests on a sort of shelf in the distributor body when it's installed. If
> your
> plates are bent very slightly downward, this would assure that they were
> pressed against that shelf, and tightening the mounting screws might
> actually bend the plate back to perpendicular. That might be a good
> thing.
>
> If your inner plates are bent upwards, toward the rotor & cap, that would
> not
> be good.
>
> > I did notice the point rubbing blocks are not worn at an angle and
> looking
> > at the cam it's not tapered that I can tell.
>
> I agree, no taper on the cam or rubbing blocks.
>
> For the record, I have never bought a new set of trigger points and never
> needed one. I HAVE experienced points where the rubbing block had worn
> enough to cause problems. This can be fixed by bending the fixed contact,
> but you need a proper jig to know exactly how far to bend it. I reset
> these as
> a part of every FI distributor rebuild ($65.) I can also reset them for $5
> if you
> just send me the FI points. Plus shipping, of course.
>
> I was caught by this on our trip to the Alabama Invasion. Halfway down,
> the
> engine started to miss, eventually getting so bad that we had trouble
> getting
> to a motel and park. It took me several hours to track down the problem,
> but
> once found, it was a quick & easy fix. I had rebuilt that distributor long
> ago,
> but it turned out that this was before I had figured out, and made, the
> jig I
> needed to do this.
>
> BTW, when I finally got around to making this jig, someone on this list
> sent
> me several FI trigger points, some NOS, to use as references. One of the
> NOS sets came in a plain white box, no brand ID of any kind. That one was
> clearly not Bosch, with a rather clunky looking electrical connector. In
> the
> end, I discovered that it was completely non-adjusted and would have been
> completely worthless in a car. I reset it and it should be fine.
>
> For those who like details, there are 3 generations of FI trigger points,
> but
> they all interchange.
>
> 1st gen: points pivot on plain shafts and can be lifted off those shafts
>
> 2nd gen: added staked washers on top of pivot shafts, so the points can no
> longer be slid off. Distributor bodies for these, '70 and later, have
> extra
> notches to clear the taller shafts.
>
> 3rd gen: small steel shields added to the moving points in an attempt to
> keep
> dirt out. I don't think they are helpful, because the dirt seems to come
> from a
> different direction.
>
> --
> *******************************
> Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
> Madison, Wisconsin, USA
> *******************************
>
> _______________________________________________
> VWType3.Org mailing list - type3 at vwtype3.org
> To unsubscribe or change subscription options, visit:
> http://lists.vwtype3.org/listinfo.cgi/type3-vwtype3.org
> If you need more help, contact: gregm at vwtype3.org
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.vwtype3.org/pipermail/type3-vwtype3.org/attachments/20220911/99a4b009/attachment.htm>