condenser bad?

[tootoot]

rebuilt 302 ford new mallory dist new points new condenser. Spark was weak wouldnt start well and wouldnt stay running. old wires. old coil. condenser went bad after 5 hours of use. also replaced resistance wire as voltage was around 4. new ballast resister giving it 8 now. Any thoughts why condensor went out so quickly. bad resistor wire? old HT wires to high resistance?

 

[Bt Doctur]

Re: condenser bad?

reversed polarity at the coil connections?

 

[paulie0735]

Re: condenser bad?

Make sure the coil is designed for use with points and does not already have a resister built in. Check with Mallory, they will advice you on the correct coil for that dissy. Sounds like you may have an incompatible coil.

 

[tootoot]

Re: condenser bad?

tx ill check all.

 

[Buttanic]

Re: condenser bad?

I just had the same problem, same symtoms with a Mallory condenser. It just about drove me crazy before I found the problem. Only had a couple of hours run time on it. Replaced it with a Ecklin condenser from NAPA.

 

[tootoot]

Re: condenser bad?

I was talking to a guy at work that seems to have a little working knowledge of the point system and he claims that in the primary curcuit, I should check the ohms of the feed to the coil and on the secondary side, check the resistance of the HT wires.

 

[DHPMARINE]

Re: condenser bad?

I'd buy two new condensers (to have a spare ) and see what happens in 5 hours.<br /><br />Years ago I was tuning up Fiats (cars) and Bosch (sp) had a bad batch of condensers.When the third tune up came back,I knew just to replace the condenser.<br /><br />You can do a whole lot of checking,but if the parts are bad ...... <br /><br />DHP