Points question..

[irish gerry]

done a good few miles in the bay over the last few weeks all went well most of the way, but on the way back from holiday i droppped to 3 cylinders,
for some reason the points have closed up so no sparks going where they should.

i've opened the points up and it's running normal again, but i'm not to sure what the proper settitng of the points should be.

mine has a 009 dizzy on it, but been told that there are electroinc dizzys out there.

whats the best to run with?? stick with the 009 or change for a new one?

cheers
again

 

[Tofufi]

Point dwell should be 50 degrees +/- 2.

Thats roughly 0.4mm if you don't have a tach dwell gauge.

I'd recommend fitting a vacuum distributor. You will get more MPG and your engine will run better.

You can buy Pertronix or other types of electronic ignition for both types of distributor.

 

[cyberdyne systems]

Make sure you apply a small amount of grease to the cam in the distributor, its the fibre part of the points arm thats worn down against this closing up the points.

For the cost of electronic ignition you could by a lot of replacement points over the years. Electronic will be less maintenance though.

I recently changed from an 009 to the correct vacuum distributor and the engine performs better, simply as its back to stock. I had electronic ignition in the 009, but its not the type that fits into the vacuum distributor, so now i'm back to points - seems to work very well.

Gareth

 

[irish gerry]

thanks for the advice lad, very greatful,
going to stick with the points the now, i'm learning how to set them etc just in case i get stuck on the road lol

i'm slowwwwly learning about these old airkoolers :lol:

thanks again

top stuff

 

[Bookwus]

Hiya Gerry,

Cyber is spot-on with his advice to use some grease on that distributor cam. One thing to add is this............Bosch makes grease especially for this purpose. It is a parrafin based grease that will not spread (you don't want grease getting into your points, believe me) and will last. Even using this special grease, you want to apply it sparingly. A little will go a long ways.

And yes, dump the 009 and get along back to the OEM distributor that came with your bus. Your bus will thank you and you'll be a much happier bus driver. If you can't locate the OEM distributor (which really should not be all that difficult) then look hard at an SVDA distributor.

 

[Tofufi]

And yes, dump the 009 and get along back to the OEM distributor that came with your bus. Your bus will thank you and you'll be a much happier bus driver. If you can't locate the OEM distributor (which really should not be all that difficult) then look hard at an SVDA distributor.

SVDA distributors were stock/OEM on all 1600TP bus engines as far as I know.

Edit: perhaps some had the dual advance/retard ones though? They were rubbish and replaced with SVDA ones when they failed, however.

 

[froggy]

Edit: perhaps some had the dual advance/retard ones though? They were rubbish and replaced with SVDA ones when they failed, however.

Think this might be my problem as my bay still runs the dual advance/retard dizzy, although 1 of the pipes has been blocked off!

 

[Bookwus]

Hiya Tofufi,

......SVDA distributors were stock/OEM on all 1600TP bus engines as far as I know......

Yes.

I think this just a problem in English-American semantics. I am most used to referring to OEM distributors by the last part of their VW parts numbers. For example, the distributor I run in my 1970 1600SP is a 205T. On the other hand, the generic term "SVDA distributor" is used to refer to any of the aftermarket replacement distributors intended to be used in this sort of application which have a vacuum advance and a mechanical advance. In the States, SVDA is most often associated with the SVDA developed and sold by aircooled.net although SVDAs are, by no means, exclusive to that company.

 

[cyberdyne systems]

Tofufi wrote:

Edit: perhaps some had the dual advance/retard ones though? They were rubbish and replaced with SVDA ones when they failed, however.

Think this might be my problem as my bay still runs the dual advance/retard dizzy, although 1 of the pipes has been blocked off!

This is the same distributor but fitted with the twin vacuum can, so if your advance part is working, you can simply block off the retard one on the carb end and set the timing for the advance only distributor (034). You can buy the vacuum can as a replacement part too to properly convert it.

Gareth

 

[Tofufi]

Hiya Tofufi,

......SVDA distributors were stock/OEM on all 1600TP bus engines as far as I know......

Yes.

I think this just a problem in English-American semantics. I am most used to referring to OEM distributors by the last part of their VW parts numbers. For example, the distributor I run in my 1970 1600SP is a 205T. On the other hand, the generic term "SVDA distributor" is used to refer to any of the aftermarket replacement distributors intended to be used in this sort of application which have a vacuum advance and a mechanical advance. In the States, SVDA is most often associated with the SVDA developed and sold by aircooled.net although SVDAs are, by no means, exclusive to that company.

Fair enough - to me SVDA just means 'Single vacuum dual advance' which can refer to any number of different distributors.

8) I don't suppose you know if the aircooled.net SVDA is the same as we get over here?

Edit: just looked, and it appears aircooled.net supplies several different types (presumably different advance curves). We only get one type over here, sold as a 'one size fits all' option. :roll:

 

[Bookwus]

Hiya Tofufi,

I can't say with any authority whether the SVDA available on your side of the pond is from aircooled.net or not. However, I would be very surprised if it is. There are now quite a few knock-offs of the aircooled.net SVDA around now. It's much more likely you are seeing one of these products.

John Connolly, the owner of aircooled.net, was the first to commercially mate up a vacuum can with the 009. This gave a distributor which had the running characteristics (advance curve) of the 009 but eliminated the dreaded flat spot of the 009. He has since gone on to (as you suggested) tweak advance curves and manufacture distributors for specific applications. For example, he is offering a distributor which can be used with the Brosol 30/31 carburetor which has a comparatively weak vacuum signal. In short, his level of "distributor science" has come a long ways and he offers a premium product.

As a matter of fact I am running one of his SVDAs in my Bus at the moment and I find it much superior to the original 205T. Better gas mileage, better performance and the engine runs significantly cooler than with a 205T. I am most impressed with it.