tach/dwell meter

[Kilgore Trout]

Hello all you "early" guys. I just searched some and came up empty. This will probably be very basic but here goes.

I thought I would start this spring out right by trying to get my carbs adjusted better. Since my yard sale tach/dwell meters have not been working well, I bought a new one. A cheepy at Autozone, it's Sunday.

The car in question is a 69 T, stock (pretty sure) Webbers, NO CDI. I belive no CDI on this car is also stock, although I am sure I could be wrong. Also stock Marrelli dist.

So, when I connect my new tach/dwell, it starts to kill the engine. Not immediately, but a slight drop in rpm then it will slowly stall. I hoping for a couple ideas on what might cause this?

Could a malfunctioning tach/dwell meter damage the points or the condenser?

Thanks,
Dan

[edmayo]

How are the leads on the meter marked, and what did you hook them to?

[Kilgore Trout]

Hi Ed,

The meter has a black clip and a green clip. Black to bolt holding coil to fan housing, (ground) green to points wire on the coil.

I drove it around and tried it again and it didn't seem do be having the same effect. Although as I was fiddleing with the carbs, The effect of lowering rpms seemed to come back, though not stalling.

I pressed on and seemed to be having some good results with the carbs and was ready to restart to adjust the idle and lost the starter. I am charging a battery. The solenoid is clicking, no crank.

Maybe my problem with the meter could be from weak batteries? This is the spring fire up, no tender through the winter, though I did start it a couple times through the winter.

Thanks for the reply, this seems like some basic stuff that should be obvious? I thought the meter doing that was strange though.

Dan

[edmayo]

Sounds like it was hooked up properly, you may have hit on the problem being a low battery, maybe low voltage at the coil and the meter was drawing off some more voltage trying to kill the ignition. I bet it will all be fine with good battery and charging voltage.