<VV> intermittent spark

[Tony Underwood]

At 07:11 hours 05/30/2006, Ray Rodriguez wrote:
>I'll try swapping in the condenser from my other car tomorrow.  My 
>understanding is that when condensers fail they fail, and that it 
>would be highly unusual, essentially unheard of, to have an 
>intermittent problem.


Allow me to step forward and testify that this statement, although 
rational and logical, is NOT correct.

The first time I ran across an intermittent capacitor/condenser it 
took two weeks to finally eliminate it... the car would run fine for 
a week or more and then randomly quit and stay quitted for about 10 
minutes or so, sometimes more, sometimes less... and then start right 
up as if nothing was wrong.   It would repeat the cycle; sometimes it 
wouldn'[t quit again for a week or more... then more of the same.

It was my mother's '61 700 4-door.    Each time, by the time I got to 
the car it had fixed itself and would start right up.   This, after 
I'd swapped out the coil, wire harness, cap, coil wire, and almost 
the ignition switch in an attempt to turn up the intermittent 
issue.     Then mom brought the car to my place and left it, drove 
the Chrysler instead.   I drove the 4-door for a few days and then it 
suddenly quit for no reason just the way mom had yelled.

I immediately assaulted the ignition, no spark, no voltage across the 
points but had 6 volts on the high side of the coil which was quite 
warm... short somewhere.   When I unhooked the capacitor the car 
started.   Hooked it back up, wouldn't start.

I removed/replaced it and threw the bad one over the house into the 
back yard where I hoped to shred it with the lawn mower later that week.


The next time I ran across another 'Vair that would quit for no 
reason then later restart etc I did the capacitor first thing, which 
fixed it.


>Regardless, I'll change it tomorrow just to be safe.


Can't hurt.


tony..