Electronic Ignition swapped for points

Ultimately...what a faff. This is where an electronic module wins hands down. Set gap once, timing once, forget forever.

Some people enjoy the whole points thing though. There is satisfaction to be gained from replacing or readjusting worn points, setting the timing to suit and making your engine run properly again.

 

I used to do the same. Much easier with the dissy out.

 

Timing done. Was 24 BTDC after fitting the points! Big change just because of fitting these

Moved to 8 BTDC at idle and this gave 26 at max. As you say, moved the idle to 10 and achieved 28 BTDC at max.

Running great

 

This thread is do much better since you figured it out.

That's pretty typical. You see many type-1 pulleys with an extra mark at 10°BTDC for 009 distributors and your type-4 engine will be very happy at 28°BTDC max.

So the next thing to say is that VW didn't fit mechanical advance distributors like yours to any vehicles. The intended use for mechanical advance distributors was stationary engines running at constant speed.

I can remember a time when VW Heritage chucked one in the box for free if your bought even just a head. Pretty sure that's right! They got everywhere.

What you should really have is an SVDA (single vacuum dual advance) distributor. These provide more advance at low loads for better mpg at light throttle and extra timing when pulling away at low throttle which translates to less revs/clutch slipping to get going without it taking a pause for thought if you know what I mean.

 

Yeh, makes sense, it’s ok pulling away in first, but you’re very aware of a bit of a throttle/clutch up operation.

Might sit content for a bit and consider this later in the season

 

Quite. It's not the end of the world, one for the future, but it does make driving a little more pleasureable so it's eorthwhile. Unfortunately your 009 type Pertronix module won't transfer to an SVDA distributor, they make a different one for SVDA and at £100+ that's something else to be aware of.

 

Old story , but I bought a SVDA dizzy with electronic ignition for less than 40 quid for my Beetle about 5 years ago and it’s been spot on

 

^^^^^ Accuspark

 

You'll notice the difference 1st time out ...
I persevered with a 009 for maybe 15 years , got everything set as good as it could be and was relatively happy ....... then I fitted a 60 quid accuspark .
Different league entirely , best 60 quid I spent

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

 

Definitely an option and hard to resist at the price.

 

The most bizarre one I met at Techenders was a distributor set to 26 degrees at idle which through the magic of mashed interior mechanism became 24 degrees at high throttle. It was to keep a pair of Kadrons idling , as imported from the US of A hole.

 

I did have s few issues here. One minute it was clear, next minute all markers seemed to disappear. Rearranging the pickup wire in relation to the HT and coil terminals seemed to sort things. Pushed it further into dark garage helped.

Worth persisting

 

Reading through Bentley and I noticed this table. As per thread a week back I adjusted my timing to 28 BTDC at max advance. Not sure the Bentley table has my centrifugal 009, non vacuum distributor, but most of the timings point to around 25 BTDC.

Just double checking 28 is ok? I guess the difference may be that the rpm in Bentley is a quoted rpm e.g. 3800, while I set mine up at max, so when the timing would increase no more with increasing rpm?

I guess this is why 28 degrees is not quoted in Bentley?

 

For a Beetle with 009 its 28-32 degrees max centrifugal advance, for a bus its safer at 28 degrees.

At Wide Open Throttle both SVDA and 009 style should be 28 degrees, the difference is at part throttle when the SVDA goes up to 40 degrees (12 vacuum plus 28 centrifugal).

Locating a good place to trigger the timing light can be tricky, I find way up by the No1 spark plug often works best on a Type 1.