Testing a Dwell Gauge
 

When you are out at a swap meet or garage sale and see a Dwell Gauge, is there any way to test the gauge without a car?

Re: Testing a Dwell Gauge
 

There is no way that I can think of

Re: Testing a Dwell Gauge
 

And then "I have a nice all chromed up maybe Snap on." problem is there is no known battery's available for its weird voltage. so it sits in the draw.

Re: Testing a Dwell Gauge
 

Those are always a "risk" buy. You never can predict how internal
electronic components will age.
I have an Orbit Laboratories light/dwell/tach meter my Dad got
in the early 70's. Still works fine. Nice, because I've seen some pretty
pricey old stuff that didn't.

Re: Testing a Dwell Gauge
 

I guess there is a good way A dwell meter is a calibrated volt meter , carry a 9 bolt in a zip lock snd hook it up should have some needle bump from the battery ???

Re: Testing a Dwell Gauge
 

Yup, that works.

Thanks

Re: Testing a Dwell Gauge
 

That's a great idea! At least you know that it "might work" . . . depending on whether or not it needs batteries or a power source itself (most do not).

Re: Testing a Dwell Gauge
 

Next, you might need to figure out a way to calibrate it.

Re: Testing a Dwell Gauge
 

The setup to calibrate is fairly simple. Just hook it up on an engine alongside a known good meter and see if the two compare the same at various rpm's.
Adjusting the calibration is a whole other can of worms. Usually not cost effective on cheap meters.

Re: Testing a Dwell Gauge
 

That is what started this whole thing. I have two meters, and they don't agree, so now I bought a third one, to see who wins!

Now we know why guys have multiple meters, some marked good and others marked bad, when you go to a garage sale.:o

Never did find an article on how to calibrate them.

Testing a Dwell Meter
 

If you dig around the intertube pages, you should find what you're looking for. A standard voltmeter can be used to check dwell if you understand what you are looking at, a dwell meter isn't very sophisticated as far as test equipment goes, notice this feature was typically included with simple analog voltmeter/tach units. "Engine Analyzer" they called them. Advertising, I suppose.