I was helping a friend solve a problem with his 73 2.0L . Everything tested out ok but there was a slow idle with the car practically being flooded and backfiring. Until I put the dist from my car in. Everything is good now...except for the fact that my car doesnt have a dist in it.

So now I have gotten into his dist and from what I can tell the trigger points dont open equally. And I found this....what running condition do you guys think this may cause?
Click to view attachment

If I had to hazard a guess, it could be the hole in the vacuum canister arm that connects to the point plate was to large and over a period of time the arm cut into the mounting post due to vibration of the points plate in operation. This would result in erratic timing as the points plate could move a few degrees.

It could have been the wrong vacuum canister.

It is for certain that the points plate on the right in the image has been repaired at some point .... plate ground strap has been re-soldered. Since it was loose at some point, could the vacuum canister arm have acted like the ground strap on the points plate and some form of electrolysis ate at the attachment post.

Do the points plates operate (rotate) freely?

Since the trigger points are operated by a cam on the dizzy shaft, are the lobes that open and close the trigger points severely worn?

Possible much operational time with absolutely no lubrication of the rubbing surfaces.

Nope ... have never seen it before in the dizzy, but have seen this in other bar over post connections (hand brake cable ends at the caliper, etc).

Hey ... whadda ya want for a couple of guesses?

Oh ... need another dizzy for your car?

IT's old and worn out, and could use some lube.

Yep, the plate is worn out. Plates are NLA. I have several good used plates if you need one.

....You can definitely see the difference!