What's this twiddle adjuster for on me distributor please

Whats the twiddle adjuster thing for on me dizzy please.

If I twiddle it out it wont start if in a bit it runs on four if in a bit more it runs ok ish.


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seen them before, used to be called the octane screw it adjusts the base plate marginally
Light and heavy vehicle technology - Google Books

fanatic said:

seen them before, used to be called the octane screw it adjusts the base plate marginally
Light and heavy vehicle technology - Google Books

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Know what you mean as all cars had one of those when I was a lad but......
this one dont do that, fine adjustment of the timing wouldn't see the V8 failing to start, you can be 10 deg out and it would still go so not that. It seems to be attatched to a large weak spring but not inspected it propperly.

Okay without seeing inside- not sure
have you points as I can't see amplifier on side from that picture.
It could be adjusting points, though the only other time I ever saw anything like that there was a locking screw on points.
the screw you adjusted was for dwell on point gap.

fanatic said:

Okay without seeing inside- not sure
have you points as I can't see amplifier on side from that picture.
It could be adjusting points, though the only other time I ever saw anything like that there was a locking screw on points.
the screw you adjusted was for dwell on point gap.

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It's an electronic dizzy with the spinner thingy instead of points and it has a rotor arm

would this be something to do with an air gap whatever that might be.??
AM GOIN TA GET A PICTURE

landowner said:

It's an electronic dizzy with the spinner thingy instead of points and it has a rotor arm

would this be something to do with an air gap whatever that might be.??
AM GOIN TA GET A PICTURE

Click to expand...

It's the spring thing at about 10 to the hour in this pics, the screw thing opperates it

the air gap allows the pickup to be close enough without touching. If you look at boomers recent thread I explained how it works

fanatic said:

the air gap allows the pickup to be close enough without touching. If you look at boomers recent thread I explained how it works

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Read that, excellent.... but still dont know what me little knob is for.

landowner said:

Read that, excellent.... but still dont know what me little knob is for.

Click to expand...

size dont matter ya know... as long as ya know what to do with it.... so you may have a few problems

landowner said:

Read that, excellent.... but still dont know what me little knob is for.

Click to expand...

As the distributor rotates the sensor see's each of the metal points go by, this causes a small trigger pulse which causes amplifier to switch.

Frow what you describe it not running is too large an air gap (no trigger) be careful not to get air gap too tight-will hit.

You want it running on all 8 and leave it be, think you will find it moves base plate

the screw is for fine adjusting your dwell angle which is critical when the points are fitted with a dwell gauge fitted it should be set to 52 degrees

vougese39 said:

the screw is for fine adjusting your dwell angle which is critical when the points are fitted with a dwell gauge fitted it should be set to 52 degrees

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Haven't got points so what does it do to the spinner thingy in the dizzy that replaces the points.
It seems to move the baseplate but across the dizzy rather than rotating it.