Helmet Distributor Issues

[TNTim]

So I pulled my “37” distributor off the car. It’s a helmet, two bolt coil. Coil was recently redone by Skip. Car seemed to be running ok outside of not wanting to start when it got hot. I replaced the condenser. While i had it out, I checked the point gaps and it was way off. Driver side was over .020 and passenger was around .018. I put it on a Heyer/Ford machine. The Dwell % was very low too. So I decided to adjust the points to where I got 55% on driver side and total of 81% for both. Checked my timing on it and also on an KR Wilson box. Installed back on the car and now it runs rough. Pops when you give it a little gas.

My question is why would it run better at such a big point gap and low dwell?

[Ken/Alabama]

If you block off the passenger side points the driver side should be set at 22 1/2 degrees dwell. Then remove the block and set the passenger side to obtain 36 degrees total.

[TNTim]

The Heyer machine shows Dwell in % and not degrees. Anybody know the conversion?

[deuce_roadster]

Also, take the vacuum brake piston out of the bore so it is not riding on the plate that changes the timing when setting it up on a machine that spins the shaft.
I would calculate what % 22 1/2 is of 360 and 36 is of 360 (or maybe 720)

[JayChicago]

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Dwell (duration of points closed) happens eight times for each 360 degree revolution of the distributor. So dwell as a percentage is the percent of 1/8 of a revolution, of 45 degrees. 22-1/2 degrees dwell is 50%. 36 degree dwell is 80%.(the points are closed 80 % of the time, open 20% of the time)