Misaligned contact points

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  • August 3, 2016 at 11:09 pm #4913
    retiredoz
    Participant

      So I yanked the flywheel off my dead CD-25 to find the points corroded, but only on the 1/3 or so of the surfaces that actually make contact. They seem to be aligned OK, but the surfaces meet at a pronounced angle. Is there a fix, anything I can bend or tweak to assure full contact ? Or do I just need to find a new and better set of points ?

      August 3, 2016 at 11:22 pm #41548
      Mumbles
      Participant

        You can bend the stationary point a bit to improve the alignment but if they are burned or pitted, new ones would probably be best along with new condensers.

        Here’s some polished ones, and some which are slightly misaligned.

        Attachments:

        August 3, 2016 at 11:41 pm #41550
        retiredoz
        Participant

          Mine looked like the third picture, without the big-time crud. Thanks

          August 4, 2016 at 7:14 am #41572
          frankr
          Participant
            quote retiredoz:

            So I yanked the flywheel off my dead CD-25 to find the points corroded, but only on the 1/3 or so of the surfaces that actually make contact. They seem to be aligned OK, but the surfaces meet at a pronounced angle. Is there a fix, anything I can bend or tweak to assure full contact ? Or do I just need to find a new and better set of points ?

            "Full Contact" should not be your goal. In fact, your 1/3 contact sounds good. If you are into cleaning and polishing them, you will probably find that you wind up with just slightly convex surfaces—that’s a good thing. The contact really should be somewhere near the center of the point, but truthfully it isn’t the big deal it is made out to be.

            August 4, 2016 at 4:50 pm #41586
            retiredoz
            Participant

              My minor concern was about setting the points using a feeler gauge when the contacting surfaces are not parallel. But now I suspect that doesn’t matter much either. Maybe my basic difficulty is visualizing an ignition component could actually have excess capacity. .

              August 4, 2016 at 5:21 pm #41588
              frankr
              Participant

                The points gap in itself is not important. What is important is WHEN they open as the flywheel magnets pass by the coil. Setting the gap to .020" gets them very close to the correct time by establishing the time they strike the rise on the cam. "Close Enough" as they say.

                August 5, 2016 at 1:39 am #41610
                retiredoz
                Participant

                  ‘Close enough’ is right in my wheelhouse…Thanks, Frank

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