hooking up dwell/tach meter

[dseretakis]

I'm trying to hook up a recently purchased from Ebay Snap on tach/dwell meter without any success.  According to old Chilton manual, black lead goes to ground and the other yellow lead goes to the coil distributor terminal which attaches to contact points.  This seems to be the universal hook-up description in other auto repair manuals also.  The problem is that the wire (green) on my 71 280SL that attaches to the points delves down under the battery and does not attach to the ignition coil at all.  I think it attackes to some other aluminum bodied box under the battery.  Anyway, I hooked up the yellow tach/dwell lead to the negative terminal on the distributor and the dwell meter just pinned its needle @ maximum dwell.  I suspect that my hook up is wrong, but my dwell meter could also be defective.  Any help woul be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Dimitri

[mrfatboy]

I think they are universal setups but I am not 100% sure.  My hooksups are

1)black lead  - ground
2)red lead    - negative pole of coil  (this is probably your yellow)
3)place sparkplug inducer bracket on one of the sparkplug wires (closet to firewall for me).  There usually is a picture of a sparkplug with a arrow on it so you attach it the correct way.

I hope this helps

[Cees Klumper]

You have a transistorized ignition module underneath the battery tray. Perhaps someone with that late 280 SL  set-up can add some tips here?

Cees ("Case") Klumper in Amsterdam
'69 white 280 SL automatic

[ja17]

Hello Dimitri,

Exact hook up may vary depending on type of meter. But here are a couple of scans of original factory bulletins on the correct hook ups for dwell readings. There are two possible locations to take the reading.


Download Attachment: dwell hook up one.JPG
83.33 KB

Download Attachment: dwell hook up two.JPG
28.95 KB

Joe Alexander
Blacklick, Ohio

[dseretakis]

quote:Originally posted by ja17

Hello Dimitri,

Exact hook up may vary depending on type of meter. But here are a couple of scans of original factory bulletins on the correct hook ups for dwell readings. There are two possible locations to take the reading.


Download Attachment: dwell hook up one.JPG
83.33 KB

Download Attachment: dwell hook up two.JPG
28.95 KB

Joe Alexander
Blacklick, Ohio