points gap for 1969 f-100 with 360 v-8

A

alarot

Member
Just put in points in pick-up with 360 v-8 and set with .017 gap.It runs good but when starting it sometimes "grunts" like the timing might be off while other times it turns over and starts fine. Question is which way should I go with points gap? A bit wider or a bit narrower? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
 
First off, make sure that the distributor shaft bushing is Not warn out and causing some slop in the shaft. Carefully try to move the shaft and see if there is any side to side play, as the points can't be set properly if the shaft can't stay centered.




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First, do as Lanny says in box above. Point gap is a ball park figure to start out at getting to the proper dwell. A point dwell of 34 or so degrees is what you are after in the end. Clean the point plate of all oil, and clean the cam face. Install the points, and put a dab of grease on the cam to lub the points block. It seems some modern points have a block that wears very fast, they are not as good as they were forty years ago.
 
Ole Don said:
First, do as Lanny says in box above. Point gap is a ball park figure to start out at getting to the proper dwell. A point dwell of 34 or so degrees is what you are after in the end. Clean the point plate of all oil, and clean the cam face. Install the points, and put a dab of grease on the cam to lub the points block. It seems some modern points have a block that wears very fast, they are not as good as they were forty years ago.
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It will run with a 34 degree dwell, but the correct setting is 27 degrees for all single point Ford V8 distributors '48-early 70s. Then the timing should be checked. :)
 
I always set them at 26 to 28 deg dwell then ck timing. Gap at 17 could have timing a little fast but the points or not far off but it sounds like the timing is a little fast. Bill
 
Thanks for the sugestions. Went about 20 miles with it today and it ran WAY better then before I replaced points, condensor and plugs so anything I do to it I don`t want to ruin the improvement!:)
 
One more thing to check. If it has a later design replacement breaker plate, make sure it is not wore out. The later design fits the older dist., but were quick to wear and become sloppy. If you can grab the points and wiggle the whole plate assy., then that is the problem
 
Put a timing light on it and run it up to 3000 and if the plate is bad the timing mark will go all over the place and it will run like crap and probably spit and pop and possibly die unless you throttle back some.
 
One of the best things you can do is have your dist tuned on a dist machine. Having the advance set correctly will help a bunch. Most dist's are off and need to be reset.
 
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