<VV> Condenser failure

[David B. Neale]

Further to the links that Bill Strickland has provided for us, the one below may also prove of interest.  For a good number of years, the issue of condenser failure interested me, and I came to the  conclusion that there were few manufacturers which produced a truly reliable condenser.

http://www.v8registerdata.net/viewreply.asp?id=2515&mtid=(1,2,3,4,7,8,9,10)&topicid=6957

Whilst the link is concerned with V8 engines used in MG cars, ( and also fitted to Rovers and a bunch of other cars over here), it was, as we all know, originally a Buick design. However, the type of engine matters not. It seems, too, that the make of condenser is also pretty immaterial.

What the link does reveal is just what I found ... that condensers could often be dead on arrival, so to speak, and those that did work were often just waiting to fail. A high quality capacitor, rated at 1000 volts DC, and mounted externally, would most likely last for many years without giving problems.

The condenser in a car's distributor does far more than prevent the points from pitting, and in truth is best discarded upon installation of an electronic system. Its duties include the facilitation of handling the collapse of the magnetic field in the coil, and the prevention ( or suppression ) of an oscillation which will result in not only increased point wear, but also extremely high voltages within the coil which can destroy the coil's insulation. Coils in Corvairs already run very warm, and my experience has been that many problems I initially thought to be carburettor faults were, in fact, ignition system problems.

A standard Kettering ignition system, with all good parts, and correctly adjusted and maintained, always worked well.  It didn't take much to take the edge off, however, and a few thousand miles were enough in most cases to cause a fairly dramatic decline in performance from optimum. Modern electronic systems do away with all of that. I still like points, though, for their simplicity.

I am sure that I am retailing here information that you all knew already, but just in case ...

I have a Pertronix 1 on my Corvair, but I just obtained, ( off eBay), brand new in box, a very early Delta T-707 electronic ignition with three whopping GM Delco power transistors on its beautiful blue aluminium heatsink.  Time to remove the Pertronix, maybe.

David

'65 Monza 140HP 4-speed convertible