I posted this is the 1st gen section but figured I might hopefully find some old school rotary guys here to help me out...

Is there anyone on here familiar with the old POINTS setup on early 7's etc? I was checking my timing today and at first everything was fine. The timing light was picking up signal on both trailing and leading plugs. After a few more minutes my light suddenly stopped picking up a signal off the trailing wire. I tried the other rotor and same problem. Strong flashes off the both leading wires but nothing off the trailing wires.

I've been trouble shooting it for a bit and have observed a few things. Both trailing plug are actually firing but it appears there isn't enough voltage in the wire to trigger the timing light. If I run the car with the trailing wire off the spark plug and hook up the light to the wire, I get a normal strobe. As soon as I put the wire back on the plug, it stops. I tried different coils but no change. Condensers, points and spark plugs are less than a year old.

Any ideas??

 

What you can try which is the correct way to adjust the points & timing on a point style dist. is to warm the engine up to operating temp.remove the dist cap/rotor & shield.now take one long spark plug & connect it to one of your coils & the #1 leading spark plug.Now take an other spark plug wire & connect it to the other coil & the #2 leading spark plug.Now when you start the car you will have perfect sight of the points operating & can adjust dwell & also move dist to ajust one timing & if needed can now loosen base plate & adjust other timing setting.Also check the bearings in all the plates inside the dist.they are prone to wear & change dwell when running.Some times worn plates can also be noteed by irratic tach operation.hopes this helps.

 

...any good junk yards around where you can pull your own stuff? Electronic Dizzy's are your friend.

 

Bad plugs and wires can cause what your describing.