Posted by S. Jester (65.70.248.73) on July 28, 2007 at 22:48:08:
In Reply to: Insulator under 6S breaker points? posted by Bill Wenger on July 18, 2007 at 17:41:42:
The insulator you're describing was used to prevent the brass primary terminal from grounding against the mag. plate when the clamp was screwed down against the terminal . If yours is still intact, there should be a tab on the left side of the insulator that is not covered by the points assy. and is cut wider than, but in parallel lines to, the primary lead terminal. The area underneath the base of the points is only to provide a good anchor for this 5/16" square tab. This insulator was used on Briggs engines using points #29667 in the late '40's to mid '50's. Earlier versions of these points had a thin brass primary terminal that the primary & condenser leads were soldered to, and the distance from this strip to the mag. plate was far enough that Briggs did not see a need to insulate one from the other. All of these points made since the late '50's have a 1/16" thick, wedged shaped piece of dielectric insulation sandwiched between the primary terminal & the base of the point set. This prevents the terminal from being pushed down far enough to ground when screwing the clamp down. I'll bet both of your replacement sets have this brownish insulator on them.