[mark houghton]

For any curious minds watching this thread, I'm not getting any power to the plug for that "retarded" solenoid. Poured over the electrical schematics and it appears to get its power through terminal 7 on the fuel enrichment control unit, so perhaps some timed circuit exists there. NOTE: When I checked for voltage I pulled the airflow sensor charging pressure relay (infamous yellow relay) because I didn't want the pumps running. May check for voltage again once I have the car up and running.
So it really begs the question: Why do we want the timing at idle to be retarded in the first place, other than setting a baseline timing? I think it's emissions related, retarded timing tends to create higher exhaust gas temps, thus keeping the catalytic converter nice an hot. Other than that there's no value in retard at idle since it will all go away once you open the throttle and vacuum advance kicks in. These dual pot distributors were just an emissions thing if I'm correct. I'm tempted to remove that valve altogether.
Thoughts?