[Patricia A]

that I am loosing spark? How do I know if my points are worn?

 

[Just Me]

take a book of matches and guage them with one layer of the card board it should be a tight fit

 

[breetai]

Easy way to tell spark

Pull a plug wire off, plug in a spare spark plug into the wire, ground the threads on a piece of metal in the engine bay preferably on the motor, an accessory bracket works great. (don't hold on to it at this point, it'll shock the bejesus out of you, but if your friend holds it...kidding) and have someone turn the motor over, then look at the spark. Should be a nice bright blue spark, and snap like a whip very sharp snap, not a dull yellow spark and a pop. Looking at the plugs will tell a lot too.

 

[Gregg-O]

Points & condenser are pretty cheap, just replace them. Or pick-up a cheapie dwell meter and measure the point dwell, should be around 30, IIRC.

 

[blackmombau]

it is much less problemmatic to go with a hei distributor. then you wont have to worry about points wearing anymore because you will have an electronic module. you can pick a distributor with cap, module and coil of for about fifty bucks..

 

[dintymoore]

it is much less problemmatic to go with a hei distributor. then you wont have to worry about points wearing anymore because you will have an electronic module. you can pick a distributor with cap, module and coil of for about fifty bucks..

ditto

You'll probably recover the $50 in gas savings pretty fast.