We have to run points in Great Race. So far the Lucas condensers have held up
well, but the guys with the flathead Fords have had problems (both stock and
Mallory dual point). Apparently it's the quality of the condenser. I'm told
most come from South America these days (like any part that's no longer sold
in huge quantities, they get sourced overseas). We've had a few bad Lucas
condensers out of the box, but very few field service failures. The units
being sold with Mallorys apparently have a high failure rate, to the tune of
1 in 4. The big, old Mallory dual point condensers with the metal strip for
the wire are highly sought after and scrounged. That's what I'm running on my
flathead hot rod.
I'm also told any condenser will work. For Land Rover the 4 cyl. and V8 the
condensers are exactly the same. (I run a new Land Rover Lucas distributor in
Scrappy.) I'm also told that heat contributes to the failures, which is why
Mallory mounts them outside. Apparently long wires (such as to relocate the
condenser to a cooler spot) will change the capacitance.
Modern condensers seem to run around .04 microfarads, and the darned things
are really tiny compared to years ago. I seem to recall they used to be
.08mfd.
I, too, am interested in all comments on the subject. I keep a complete new
distributor, assembled and gapped, ready to drop in. It's faster than
fiddling with little screws you can drop.
Steve Hedke
"Moss Motors Team Scrappy"
Great Race #45, 1957 Triumph TR3
britpac@aol.com
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