If i can charge up a condenser and it holds a charge is it good? Or are there other things that can be bad, as in bad enough to toast points? I used a ohm meter to charge it, and watched it discharge into a volt meter, and we are talking old style br*** mallory condensers.
I have seen condensers that checked good cold and where bad when thy got warm, also do you have a ballest resistor or a ballest wire to drop voltage to the coil when the key is in run postion 12V to 9 or so volts
Years ago I worked in the parts department of a Pontiac dealership. We had an old man that did nothing but tune ups and a/c work. Pappy would not work on a car unless he replaced the condenser. Now buy a fleet of condenser s or convert it to a HEI.
Is the alternator / generator overcharging ?? I've struck this once before, burnt the points real bad, real quick..
Condensers can 'wear out' over time, either by outright failing or changing value enough to not work correctly in the circuit. You'll need a meter that can measure capacitance, and need to know what it's value should be.
also never ***ume that the new replacement you installed is any good....I have seen many bad ones right out of the box.
A condenser won't make your points cook or not cook. Cooked points is usually a sign of too many volts to the points, like in bad resistor or lack of resistor, on a 12 v car. I don't know what would cause that on a 6V car if that is what you are looking at. I once had an old Ford dealing me fits the points just wouldn't last, period. I checked everything 90 ways to nuthin. Finally and I am not sure why I decided to check the start mode on the solenoid, there was some kind of a short in there somewhere. Once started there was 12v still running though the solenoid to the start post.
Condensers are there to reduce arcing across the points. The arcing is what does the points in if not controlled. If you have a CD ignition, the condenser is meaningless as the CD ignition draws very little current over the points, therefore little or no arcing. For an experiment, just remove the condenser lead and try and start the engine, good luck!
I think the purpose of a condenser is to give multiple spark spikes as each cylinder fires. You can see it on an oscope, without you get only one spike and your engine will not run.
They won't start without the condenser but they will run without one. We had a '65 Chebby that the wire fell out of the condenser, it was running fine but when we turned it off it would not start. *We shoved the wire back in it and got it started and the fella I was with pulled it back out to show me that it would run once it got started. I always figured it was just to help one get started because of that. *Mallory distributer external condenser.
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