I bought an engine multimeter/engine analyzer to measure engine rpm's. It has two wires. One goes to the neg on the distributor and the other one to ground. I never get a steady reading. It just jumps all over the place. Has anyone ever used one of these on their cars?

yes.

you bought a tool to tell you if you have a problm. you do! success...

first - check your dwell. my guess is it's way too small. this can confuse a tach.

could be that your distributor shaft is worn, or the breaker points cam lobe is worn. changing to a pointless system will eliminate the worn lobe problem and be more tolerant of the shaft bushing problem.

also make sure you have really good connections to the distributor, that your condenser is correct, and that you have a really good ground. what are you using for your ground connection ?

QUOTE (ArtechnikA @ May 15 2005, 04:07 AM)

yes. you bought a tool to tell you if you have a problm. you do! success... first - check your dwell. my guess is it's way too small. this can confuse a tach. could be that your distributor shaft is worn, or the breaker points cam lobe is worn. changing to a pointless system will eliminate the worn lobe problem and be more tolerant of the shaft bushing problem. also make sure you have really good connections to the distributor, that your condenser is correct, and that you have a really good ground. what are you using for your ground connection ?

There are no points. It has electroinc ignition. I'll check the ground.

QUOTE (chris914 @ May 15 2005, 10:02 PM)

There are no points. It has electroinc ignition. I'll check the ground.

okay - electronic ignition may or may not mean no points, but we'll assume you have some kind of CDI *and* no points. could be your points replacement module doesn't have enough 'drive' to run both the ignition and the tool. what kind of points replacement module do you have?

my experience with the Crane has been that it can sink a lot of current, but i don't know about the other types.

QUOTE (ArtechnikA @ May 16 2005, 02:55 AM)

QUOTE (chris914 @ May 15 2005, 10:02 PM) There are no points. It has electroinc ignition. I'll check the ground. okay - electronic ignition may or may not mean no points, but we'll assume you have some kind of CDI *and* no points. could be your points replacement module doesn't have enough 'drive' to run both the ignition and the tool. what kind of points replacement module do you have? my experience with the Crane has been that it can sink a lot of current, but i don't know about the other types.

Sorry I just have the cheap Ignitor Electronic Ignition in a Bosch 009 and a Bosch blue coil. Does anyone know which wire is the stock tach? Maybe if I disconnect it.

QUOTE (chris914 @ May 16 2005, 09:50 PM)

Does anyone know which wire is the stock tach? Maybe if I disconnect it.

in my cars, it's the black with purple tracer.

but - there should be two wires on the (-) side of the coil -- one goes to (comes from...) the points; the other goes to the tach. so - it's the one that's not the points. if you disconnect one and the car won't start - it was the other one.

good luck !