FRIED CONDENSOR(S)

[Anonymous]

hello everyone: i was frying my condensor which then in turn fried my points very consistently.....i went out and bought a new coil...for i had a petronix coil on my points ignition...i installed the coil replaced the points and condensor and wow i could actually drive the car and then after a week my condensor fried my points again!!!!!!!!!!

i'm so frustrated i broke down in the middle of the night so many times changing my points and condensor over and over....please help :

 

[Anonymous]

How about doing an Electronic Ignition conversion?

 

[Anonymous]

i need to find out what the problem is first before i can just swap out my whole ignition...please anyone have any suggestions on FIXING the problem not replacing the ignition

 

[Anonymous]

i need to find out what the problem is first before i can just swap out my whole ignition...please anyone have any suggestions on FIXING the problem not replacing the ignition

 

[CobraSix]

What kind of coil are you using?

If it is the stock coil, the only thing that I can think of that will cause the condenser to fry to points is if you don't have a ballast resistor (or resistor wire). The stock coil is supposed to have a resistor wire from the ignition switch. If you have 12v at your coil (stock coil that is) then you are getting too much power to the condensor.

Slade

 

[addo]

This one's been bugging me. After following Slade's advice, I suggest:

1. Disconnect the condenser, turn the engine to close the points. Check the resistance between the condenser lug on the points, and the negative terminal. Should be 1 ohm or less. If not, follow back to find the resistance, and fix it.

2. Are you gapping your points or setting the dwell? I tend to use dwell, but if your distributor cam is worn, this can become wholly unreliable. The points will spend too long opening and closing, so the contacts burn.

3. Unlikely - but is the shaft sloppy in its bushing? This can affect the points, too.

Make sure the condenser is the correct one for the distributor and engine. It's different to the V8 ones. Lube the points well at the rubbing point (and lube the cam) upon installing, and realise you need to reset them after a comparatively short mileage due to initial rubbing block break-in. Else, the gap is insufficient, and we know what happens...

Hope this helps.

Cheers, Adam.

 

[Anonymous]

cheers adam...thanks for the directions....this aspect of my car has been intolerable....and the mechanics just don't want to try to figure out what the issue is they just want to charge me $500 to replace everything and hope somewhere they will fix it....too bad i am so far away from australia it'd be great to see your cars...it may be my inability to put the point in correctly...i will keep checking the voltage and determine some of the numbers and then go from there....
thanks,
dave