Ignition Coil Installation
AND NOW another ANNOYING story from the old days.......
In the early 70's after getting out of the Navy after 6 years, I had a friend in my home town, Chev pickkup. He called me one late afternoon after work. "I'm trying to change the points in my truck, and I've checked and double checked and I CANNOT GET THEM TO RUN
So I go out there, and it's the typical '60's Chev V8--window distributor, adjustable points, allen wrench. I checked voltage, points resistance, dwell, even resorted to a feeler gauge, checked the dist for shaft play WTF. IT HAD BEEN RUNNING!!!
Turns out that "back then" GM and other aftermarket outfits had come out with a "uniset"---points and condenser in one unit. For some reason this minor point--which I'll explain--was lost on BOTH of us
He had bought a "standard" set of points, no uniset so no condenser. For some reason, I had not noticed THERE WAS NO condenser in the dist.
The thing that "fried our brains" is that his was an AFTERMARKET "uniset" and IT DID NOT HAVE a conventional condenser. Rather, it had a tiny little CERAMIC condenser/ capacitor, and otherwise looked like a "non" uniset!!! If either of us had noticed that there was NO CONDENSER in the distributor, it would have been an instant AWAKENING!! LOL
Below, an aftermarket / GM style uniset with "regular" condenser. This is NOT what came out of his distributor. By the way NEVER EVER buy or use P&D (Piddle and Diddle) breaker points!!!
I've never seen a photo of the type I described--nor do I know who made them
AND NOW another ANNOYING story from the old days.......
In the early 70's after getting out of the Navy after 6 years, I had a friend in my home town, Chev pickkup. He called me one late afternoon after work. "I'm trying to change the points in my truck, and I've checked and double checked and I CANNOT GET THEM TO RUN
So I go out there, and it's the typical '60's Chev V8--window distributor, adjustable points, allen wrench. I checked voltage, points resistance, dwell, even resorted to a feeler gauge, checked the dist for shaft play WTF. IT HAD BEEN RUNNING!!!
Turns out that "back then" GM and other aftermarket outfits had come out with a "uniset"---points and condenser in one unit. For some reason this minor point--which I'll explain--was lost on BOTH of us
He had bought a "standard" set of points, no uniset so no condenser. For some reason, I had not noticed THERE WAS NO condenser in the dist.
The thing that "fried our brains" is that his was an AFTERMARKET "uniset" and IT DID NOT HAVE a conventional condenser. Rather, it had a tiny little CERAMIC condenser/ capacitor, and otherwise looked like a "non" uniset!!! If either of us had noticed that there was NO CONDENSER in the distributor, it would have been an instant AWAKENING!! LOL
Below, an aftermarket / GM style uniset with "regular" condenser. This is NOT what came out of his distributor. By the way NEVER EVER buy or use P&D (Piddle and Diddle) breaker points!!!
I've never seen a photo of the type I described--nor do I know who made them
