FUBARed my ignition cont ?

[kevinseven]

I got my engine all back together last night and put some new plugs in. The old ones were black and sooty -- Haynes says that I'm running way too rich. I guess I'll tackle that next.

Anyway, by double checking all the hoses I was able to fix that surge to 3,000 and then die. I checked my points again and hooked up my special Sears Dwell meter and it read 54. Now the manual lists that as out of norm but within wear limit. What should I do?

Should I monkey with the points or is that a sign of a funky distibutor? I don't want to drop a couple of hundred on an electronic ignition only to find out I need another $800 for a new distributor.

I then proceeded to set the timing but I had a devil of a time with the idle. I let it get good and warm and the Sears meter gave me a reading of 1,600 RPM, the onboard tach said it was about 1,000 RPM and my Fluke 88 bounced between 350 and 1,200 but usually said 980 RPM. I,m starting to mistrust my old Fluke but when I dialed the idle screw down so the Sears said 900, the engine was so choked that it could barely keep running.

I decided to go with the onboard, the Fluke and my ear and when I cranked up the timing light I could see the RED mark made by the PO just a few impellors to the left of the notch. So is that mark TDC or 7.5 for the 1.8? Hmm... I wonder.

I dialed the distributor until the RED mark was in the notch and packed eveything up...come to think of it I bet I forgot to tighten down the distributor clamp.

Anyway, this morning I'm finally back on the road -- it's about 32 - 38 degrees outside -- and when I come to a stoplight the engine sits at around 2,000 RPM. If I feather the clutch once in gear I can get it to drop back down to just under the 1,000 mark. What's the deal? Is this a symptom of my questionable timing job or do I still have a hose problem.

kevin
1975 1.8L
atlanta, ga