Setting dwell?

I doesn't come to me at the moment how it was done differently, but it was, resulting in a considerably different "spec", such as the one you are looking at. Perhaps, it was given as "crankshaft degrees", which would be twice the distributor degrees, which would make sense with what you are seeing.

ANYHOW, while the actual point setting and dwell at the distributor remained THE SAME, the way of looking at it, and "spec'ing" it changed.

Dwell is set by adjusting the point gap. Decrease the point gap to increase dwell, and vise versa.

Really, these engines aren't too finicky about dwell and timing. I usually just eyeball the point gap.

Dwell is a measure of how long the points stay closed. This # can change with a after market distributor that calls for different point sets or a different size cam wheel.

Now if we look at the parts book it shows that the 601 and 801 use the same distributor; same points; same cam wheel; same everything.

So I think your question should have been..... ..
Why does the service manual say that the dwell on a 601 is 27° to 31° and the 801 is 58° to 63°

Could this be a miss print????? ????

Seams to me if you got the same points running on the same cam in the same distributor then the dwell should be the same.

I say leave it alone at 30°