PSA: Trouble shooting - Check your points rubbing blocks Options

[914rrr]

Now that I have a workable set of brakes, I've been driving my 75 1.8 a bit more often.

Last weekend I drove to a VW show. It seemed to be a bit sluggish, down on power running warm, etc. I'd bought new Bosch points and condenser and a Bremi coil to install. When I removed the existing points, they looked relatively new with a small "peak" on the the point surfaces but the 2 halves were misaligned. After I compared the new and old ones side by side, the rubbing block (insert proper name here) that rides on the distributor shaft lobes was heavily worn down, like 1/2 of its original height!

It wasn't opening up the points far enough and was likely the cause of my driveability issues. Given that the "old" points looked relatively new, and given the barely drivable state the car was in when I bought it last year, I'm sure the old points haven't been driven that many miles.

Q:What would cause the points block to wear that rapidly? Maybe newer and /or aftermarket points are using an inferior material for the block?

The distributor shaft did look kind of gunky / corroded, so I cleaned and polished it and put a tiny dab of dialectic grease on the shaft.

Q: what is the best lubricant for the distributor shaft?