Trouble setting dwell on 1971 W115

[skis3]

I put the clean spark plugs in tonight and tried to dial in the carburetor. She is running much better now. Hopefully I can take her around the block tomorrow.

[skis3]

I took "Suzy" for her maiden voyage today. We drove to the gas station about 2 miles from my home. She smoked the entire way there, but after a minor adjustment of the carburetor mixture she had much more power and very little smoke. The dwell is measuring 51 degrees at the points/condensor connection. Great job everyone!

[daidnik]

Just keep your pair of 19mm spanners handy and ease the solenoid up by maybe 1/4 to 1/6th turn at a time but drive it for a while after each tweak. Unfortunately, the car must be completely warmed up to get a good feel for the adjustment and you need to study how it drives and accelerates.

The area of the solenoid gets pretty toasty when the car's all warmed up so I find the iterative adjustment process useful.

You can also keep an eye on the tailpipe. If that looks pretty sooty, then it's likely too rich. It won't look as clean as the new EFI cars will, but it should trend to a bit of a brown-black, not a sooty black, but this will take a week or more of driving to stabilize.

Eventually if you get the solenoid moved up too far, you'll start to get a lean misfire condition and you'll notice that. But essentially, you want to be just the tiniest bit richer than the lean misfire point. Find that line and step back just enough so you don't cross it.

Don't tighten the 19mm locknut too hard, it has nothing to do with sealing and the very fine internal threads for the solenoid valve is in that pot-metal casting; not the strongest material.

[skis3]

Great advice. I will keep a small set of tools with Suzy at all times.

Thanks,
Bob