Vintage Chief

You do it carefully. You shouldn't have to remove the weights/springs. You're making this FAR, FAR, FAR to complicated. If you can't remove the condenser, or get a proper sized feeler gauge in their, you're fumbling around w/ the wrong tools. There is also YouTube.

oldcutlass

You don't have to loosen any screws that hold the points in, you just adjust the hex adjusting screw attached to the points assy. Its a lot easier to do this with a dwell meter while cranking the engine and the center spark plug wire pulled with the cap on. Takes all of 5 mins to set the dwell to 30*.

Oldssupreme

Ok. Thank you. Maybe I'll just go the route of setting the dwell. I don't mean to sound ignorant about this procedure but all of the videos and photos that I've seen show the weights and springs from above the points removed so I didn't understand how to get a feeler gauge in there since I don't seem to have a lot of room between the firewall and the distributor. Are you able to post of photo of where you are inseeting the feeler gauge to gap the points with the distributor installed? I've seen a lot of videos and diagrams of cars with the distributor in the front or side of the engine where it's easy to get it in, or with a type of rotor that pulls off with no weights impeding the view. Thank you for your patience.
Chris

Fun71

A wire feeler gauge set may be better suited for this.

I recall some folks mentioning a match book cover can be used to set the points gap when no other tools are available. Apparently this was common knowledge and used as a roadside tool back in the days when points were the only ignition system in use.

Oldssupreme

Thank you Fun71.

Vintage Chief

Indeed it was. Matchbook covers worked great (they still do) to set the initial points gap until you could fine-tune w/ a dwell meter. I used to employ a matchbook cover on two H-D Sportster motorcycles I owned in the early '70s when residing in California. They went through points like a child eating candy. Slow moving interstate traffic would overheat the motorcycle, overheat the points, the points would disintegrate. Run to the auto store, R&R the points, and head back down the road.

boese1978

Point gap setting tip for those with an extra dist laying around- You can install your points on an old "out of the car" dist, use your feeler gauge to set by turning the allen head screw, remove the points and install them in the vehicle dist and it will be very close, at least enough to start the car. This works well for me and save crawling around under the hood a bit. Another thought is to get rid of the uniset points and get a pig tail condenser - you can loosen it and move it out of the way so there is room to get your feeler in there while under the hood.

Oldssupreme

Boese, i think your idea of getting a separate set of points and a seperate condenser is what I am going to try. Just no way that I can see to get the feeler guage in there from the back with the condenser in the way and can't get in from the top because the vacuum advance is in the way. I wish I could figure out why I am not able to get this shorty feeler gauge in from the back when no one else seems to have this problem. Either way, I posted a link below to a standard set of points and a condenser. Can anyone verify if these are the correct ones for the job? Amazon says these will fit my car but I'm not sure if they will fit each other. Thank you!



Chris

OLDSter Ralph

Why are you even screwing around with feeler gauges ? Get a dwell meter or a dwell/tach meter. Not only is it faster, its more accurate.

Vintage Chief

Yes, they should fit. Go to any local automotive store - they probably have several dozen of each in stock & they can check the part number to ensure it matches up for you.

PatL

The points will almost always come with the gap close enough to start the car; then you can dial it in with the dwell meter.