Dwell Meter - how do you hook it up?

[Jeff K]

I wanted to check my mixture and I bought a dwell meter. My car passed smog a few months ago, but it seems and kinda smells to be running rich. The low end bogs until about 2500 rpms and city mileage is bad. Highway and high rpms seem fine. It always needs a good 5 minutes to warm up, and I have a new WUR too.

I know plugs tell the story, I'm going to pull those too and check for buildup.

I was told you connect it to the pink wire to the diagnostic plug, does anyone have a photo of this?

Thank in advance.

Jeff
PS - How does this actually work? I'm guessing it reads voltage to the Lambda sensor.

[Ryan King]

Ask "Chris 16409". He is a local friend of mine who JUST went through ALL of this to get his car to pass smog. I will let him now you are asking.

[Jeff K]

Ask "Chris 16409". He is a local friend of mine who JUST went through ALL of this to get his car to pass smog. I will let him now you are asking.

Funny, I did ask Chris. I actually bought one just like his after reading his post. He was going to send a pic, but I guess he got busy. I appreciate you asking.

[Chris 16409]

Hey Jeff, I'll try and post a picture tonight. Sorry for the delay.

[Jeff K]

I really appreciate it Chris. I know you have better things to do than be my technical support!

Thanks again
Jeff

Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk

[82DMC12]

I wanted to check my mixture and I bought a dwell meter. My car passed smog a few months ago, but it seems and kinda smells to be running rich. The low end bogs until about 2500 rpms and city mileage is bad. Highway and high rpms seem fine. It always needs a good 5 minutes to warm up, and I have a new WUR too.

I know plugs tell the story, I'm going to pull those too and check for buildup.

I was told you connect it to the pink wire to the diagnostic plug, does anyone have a photo of this?

Thank in advance.

Jeff
PS - How does this actually work? I'm guessing it reads voltage to the Lambda sensor.

I think it's actually the orange/white wire, not pink. I can check at home tonight if no one has confirmed.

Andy

[Chris 16409]

Here are the pictures. Hope these help.

[Jeff K]

Here are the pictures. Hope these help.

Great! Thank you.

[Jeff K]

Ok, this is my reading at idle after it's warmed up. I also attached photos of the hook up.

It looks like I'm running pretty rich , which was my assumption from the start. it's reading a solid 9-10. I read it should be 20.

Can one of the gurus check my findings please. I don't want to make adjustments if I hooked up or tested wrong.

Thanks
Jeff

[Chris 16409]

Hey Jeff, It looks like you have the meter hooked up correctly. For the ground, I used one of the engine's "eye hooks". When you read the meter off the 8-cylender scale, you need to double the reading. So, you're actually at around 20. Is the needle moving any? Once the car is warmed up, the needle should be oscillating. Make sure the meter is connected to the pink/orange colored wire. Once you have the oscillating needle, set the mixture between 30 and 40. My guess is you'll have to turn the mixture screw counterclockwise in order to bring the needle into the 30 to 40 range. I have mine set closer to 30 right now.

[Bitsyncmaster]

It looks like you found the proper orange wire to connect to the dwell meter but you have connected the meter ground to the jumper (+12 volt) terminal. If you now connect the ground to the engine block as it should be, your meter reading will go to about 80 degrees dwell.

Remember to get the reading of 45 degrees during warmup and a little higher with the WOT switch pressed. That verifies your meter is reading correctly.