Dino Saga 060416___Points Lots of Old Wives Tales about points. Lots of folks go to magnetic or optical sensors to get rid of point problem forever. Waste of time. Coil is fine, Iridium plugs last forever, Points are not near as much a problem as advance mechanism. Have to lube advance every 10,000-15,000 miles. Have to take distributor apart to do it. Points last 30,000-40,000 miles if you keep rubbing block and cam lubricated. Changing points is an additional 10 minutes every 40,000 miles. While you are rebuilding the advance mechanism. Who cares? Most everyone has changed out the Dinoplex by now. 1970 era power transistors were pretty pitiful by todays standards. More modern coil drivers last forever. Capacitor never sees more than 14 volts so it lasts forever. The points carry virtually no current so there is no electrical erosion. Mechanical pounding eventually deforms the tungsten contacts. Lots of spring tension on Ferrari points. Still, not much happens. 7800 RPM is lots of revs even divided by two. Wear of the phenolic rubbing block is the real limiting factor. The felt pads touching the six lobed cam must be kept moist. Oil them when lubing the advance and all is well. Almost all of the time. I had a special case once. Knew that points would last forever so went crazy trying to fix eratic firing. Plenty of phenolic, plenty of lube, points looked fine from above. Finally quit playing with plugs, wires and pulled distributor. Removed points and looked closely. Funny thing had happened. Both fixed and moveable points were exactly the same diameter. Moveable one was domed like new, fixed had depression worn into it as usual but there was a difference. Moveable points go in an arc. As fixed point deformed, a hair thin section was left behind. It would move, bend towards moveable point, foul up timing, get smashed, weld to moveable point, break off. I could have dressed the fixed point flat and be done but phenolic was somewhat worn and I had a new set of points. Saved the pieces and put in the new points. Engine was smooth as silk. If both points are of significantly different diameter, the problem does not occur. If I had dressed the fixed point at 15,000 miles all would have been OK. Who would have thunk. Ferraris do the darndest things. Pics show the story. John . Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
