Dwell setting

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I believe that you should be able to work it out on a scope. The lobes on an 8 cylinder are 45º  apart and you just need to see what the open/closed ratio is and apply it to the 45º.  I can't think of any way to use a regular voltmeter to see what the dwell is. I've never tried to calculate it or tried to find a formula, but you would still need to measure the amount of time they are closed, compared to open.

I would just set the points to 0.017", or so to get it to where you need to go. A matchbook cover used to be about the right thickness, if you don't have a feeler gauge handy. For reference, a dime is about 3 times the thickness of the gap you need.

 
I believe that you should be able to work it out on a scope. The lobes on an 8 cylinder are 45º  apart and you just need to see what the open/closed ratio is and apply it to the 45º.  I can't think of any way to use a regular voltmeter to see what the dwell is. I've never tried to calculate it or tried to find a formula, but you would still need to measure the amount of time they are closed, compared to open.

I would just set the points to 0.017", or so to get it to where you need to go. A matchbook cover used to be about the right thickness, if you don't have a feeler gauge handy. For reference, a dime is about 3 times the thickness of the gap you need.
I did set it .017 car runs, just wanted to be more precise as my old ass eyes sometimes are not known for accuracy.

 
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