Bloo

A dwell meter is just a duty cycle meter. To read correctly, a dwell meter needs to read 0 with the ignition on and the points open, always off, a 0% duty cycle. It needs to read 45 degrees (for 8 cylinder), or on 100% of the time, with the ignition on and the points closed, a 100% duty cycle. The meter cannot be pegged to the right or the left. It must be 0 and 45 (for 8 cylinder). I suspect the red rectangle is SnapOn telling you anything in that rectangle is close enough at the 45 degree end. If you cant make it behave correctly at both ends, the meter cannot give an accurate reading on that particular car. If the meter achieved both ends of the scale correctly, but backwards, then 15 degrees was really 30 degrees, a fairly normal dwell reading for a modern V8. Dwell meter designs have been all over the place in design over the last 80 or 90 years. Ones that connect with 2 wires and have a zero adjust knob offer the most chance of success on cars that are 6 volt, or positive ground, or both. That is not a rule, just a probability.

If the points are truly in parallel, and they are 45 degrees apart as you would expect, and there is one coil, and four lobes on the cam, the ignition would never fire because one set of points would always be closed. If the points are at the same angle, everything else as above, only 4 cylinders would fire. If the points are only separated by a very small angle, in the interest of increasing dwell, as is seen commonly in postwar setups, and everything else is as above, only 4 cylinders would fire. If the distributor were driven at crankshaft speed (double speed), and everything else is as above, then all 8 cylinders would technically fire, but in that case the cap and rotor would have to be elsewhere, driven by a different shaft (at normal speed) or the rotor would not line up to the right cylinders at the right time. EDIT: Hmmm... maybe if the cam lobes were extremely wide, and the first set of points is still open when the second one opens, maybe it could work with the points in parallel. That is a bit of a brain teaser. The signal at the coil for purposes of RPM would be the same as a modern 8 cylinder in that case. Dwell too, although the dwell reading wouldn't be very useful. Wrong point settings in opposite directions could produce a correct reading. Offhand I would expect a dwell number higher than a typical V8.

Exactly. You have to get over where the cylinder is. A Zoom Spout bottle also works.

Oh it's cast? I didn't realize. That does complicate things. Are you sure that's a missing tooth? it looks intentional. Ya, not bad on the price.

To even read the dwell, it would have to read 0 with the points open and the maximum possible degrees with the points closed. On the meter in the picture, maximum is all the way to the left. Normal on most cars is a little more than half of what is theoretically available. I think there is almost zero chance the meter in the picture will even function on a 6V positive ground car. I would like to see the manual for the meter. There is one other likely problem: I am guessing as @Grimy did that it has to be a 4 lobe cam. If that's true, the points just about have to be wired in series. This makes the dwell meter reading meaningless. A correct dwell reading would occur with a correct setting, and also with 2 wrong settings in opposite directions. Then there is the timing issue on dual setups like that. Once the points are set, one set has to be moved so the timing is the same on all cylinders. It depends on the distributor. Some have a way to change the timing on one set of points. The goal is to have the timing set normally on #1 or whatever cylinder it is supposed to time on. Then check the next cylinder in the firing order. You have to change that adjustment until they match. If there is no separate timing adjustment for one set of points, then you have to set the dwell (or gap) slightly incorrectly on one set to get the timing to match. The only easy way to do this is on a distributor machine. If you are a complete masochist, and have a lot of free time and the patience of Job, there might be another way. Post back if interested. Unlikely for the RPM to be correct unless the meter explicitly supports 6V positive ground. RPM is a tougher technical problem for the meter than dwell. Dwell is easy.

Could probably be welded? A new hardened part would be nice though.

Actually that was my point. I am a member of AACA mainly to support this forum, and because the library exists. Your earlier post implied that maybe, just maybe, the money is going mainly to print a magazine that someone will probably throw in a dumpster when I pass, still in it's plastic wrapper. That isn't a comment about the magazine itself, it is first rate. I am in a bunch of clubs. I can't read them all. The pile grows. Some other clubs offer the option, VCCA for instance.

And yet there is still no "no magazine" or "online" option for membership.

As a former European car mechanic, It's hard to imagine anything more American looking than one of those long wheelbase GM front wheel drives, long, low, and full of cut pile, velour, and plastic burlwood. If they were trying to imitate the Europeans with that, it sure never once occurred to me. They were great cars though in spite of all the plastic burlwood. They were clean and well laid out, reliable, Buick V6 powered, and completely lacking the maze of oil soaked hoses, wires, and plastic valves in the way of everything that was typical for the time. It remains the only GM car of that period I ever seriously considered buying. If you didn't like the reverse hood on the Buick, you could always get the Oldsmobile. It's the same car without the reverse hood.

Two thumbs up for that generation of Escort with the standard equipment 1.9 engine and a stickshift. Fun and reliable. I was recommending them to anyone who would listen back in the day.

Wash the valves with solvent of some sort, blow dry with compressed air, dunk in clean ATF and drop them in. Don't allow any shop rags within 100 feet. Knife-sharp edges on the valves are what make them not stick. Be careful about handling them too much. Good luck. I don't envy you on the valve adjustment. It would be nice if we all had 3 hands .

You'd best hope not. That is a well known no-no on Buick nailheads.

Frank nailed it. It's a woodruff key. You can see it in the pics in the first post. Also as others mentioned, clean out the groove. Its a semicircular cut. If the key is really tight, you might have to squeeze it to get it in. If it is not really tight, it is going to try to tip as you shove the pulley on. See how the back end of the key is higher in this pic from the original post? That needs to be tapped or pushed down a bit, which will push the front up. It needs to be level. Looking like this, the pulley might go partway on and stop. If it persistently does this, you might have to tap the back of the key down with the pulley partway on. That is a bit risky because you might squish the key a little. Always clean it up and try it normally first. Tight is good. It helps it stay put while you slide the pulley on.

Ah good old Super 77. I see it hasn't changed in the last 40 years. Get some contact cement.

Surely the line can't be that long to get in.

Yeah, berryman might do it.

If it is truly gummed up, soak it in something, maybe acetone. Handle it gingerly. Don't polish anything.

I don't know of one either. They used to sell kits with 4 signal light housings to convert trucks. I haven't seen that lately. If you are going to just add lights like that, front and back, that simplifies things, but almost no one wants to do that these days. They want to combine with the tail/stop light and re-purpose the parking light. Modern switches, generally speaking, are capable of sharing existing lights. So are some but not all old switches. For those who are just adding lights, I hear reproduction Harley Davidson signal light housings are popular.

Eight with a stickshift, too.

I don't know what the 60 wiper motor even looks like offhand. The later GM ones are pretty confusing, nevertheless... On just about any wiper motor that has a "park" function, there is always power at the motor from an "always hot" wire. Switching schemes can change for variable speeds, and power is sent to other terminals appropriately to "run" at the desired speed, but that is a separate issue. For park, there will be a set of contacts, probably a brush on a rotating disc, that is always "on" from the "always hot" wire, and sending voltage to the motor except when the wipers are all the way down. When the wipers are all the way down the contacts break and the wipers shut off. If you shut the wipers off and they are not down at the bottom of the windshield, the motor remains "on" because of those contacts until the wipers are down. It sounds like maybe the contacts aren't breaking?

The contacts in the solenoid that turn the starter motor on do not get touched until the gear is already pushed out. I guess in theory, if the fork were broken or really severely worn enough to lose an end I guess it might be possible. One thing to understand though, Grinding gears from flattened thin teeth on the ring gear, or a mis-shimmed starter (does this one use shims?) or a broken or incorrectly installed fork, or whatever, will *sound* like grinding gears. It is a catastrophic really loud really shrill parts-being-destroyed sound that makes you instinctively cringe, makes you not want to do it again, and may even give you a little bit of a headache. On the other hand, if it harmlessly goes "ffzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz" and you can't wait for it to spin down so you can try again, it's the starter drive. Period. That's what it is. Put one in.

Several years ago one was spotted in beautiful downtown Burbank.

Yes. part of a car radio, I think from the 1930-32 period. The rest of the tube numbers would be interesting, but I don't think that could possibly be the whole radio. There was probably another chassis.