"Lazy" ignition points

Posted by Owen_Dyneto On 2012/5/25 11:42:45

I had a curious little problem with my 34 Packard last week which might prove valuable to others with cars where the ignition points are not pre-assembled as a set but rather use a separate base plate and arm.

In anticipation of the upcoming Henry Joy Tour in Mass I decided to pull the distributor, dress and gap the points, and re-synchronize them so both sets of 4-cylinders are timed correctly. The car was running just fine before that - makes me think of the "if it ain't broke....", but the points did need gapping and synchronization. On driving to the show the car ran perfectly below 45-50 mph but above that it developed an erratic miss which I assumed must be ignition related.

Pulled the distributor and rechecked the gap and synchronization, nothing amiss. Using a steady rest I clamped the distributor body in my lathe and chucked the drive end to the lathe chuck. I put an ohmeter across first the first set of points and ran the rpm up, no problems. But when I tested the second set of points, they became erratic at higher rpms. So I had a recalcitrant set of points. Though I didn't measure the point tension, it seemed more than adequate (spec is 20 oz) and more or less the same for both sets. I removed the offending point arm and put a tiny spec of graphite grease on the pivot post and retested - problem apparently solved.