[Chaplin]

Originally Posted by chopper

What is your idle rpm? That is, at what rpm are you setting the initial timing? If your idle rpm is too high, the distributor will already be feeding advance into the timing, so your initial setting will appear correct but you will not have full advance available. If I recall correctly, the springs should hold the advance weights at full retard up to about 1000 rpm; past that, the weights will start to come off the posts. If your idle rpm is set up to 1200-1300 rpm, you most likely already have some advance being fed into the system.

With the light springs, total advance will come in pretty quickly. 2300 rpm seems a little fast, however; you might try the next higher set of springs to slow down the advance rate a little. As you state, the total amount of advance is controlled by the bushing; the springs just control how fast the advance comes in. Opinions will vary amongst the folks here on the site, but I found that 36 degrees total advance at 2800-3000 rpm worked best for my engine.

Some folks set the total advance at 3000 rpm to 36 degrees rather than shooting for 40. IMHO, 40 is too much and will lead to higher than necessary engine temperatures.

Yup, agree with it all.