In a message dated 98-03-15 03:08:46 EST, palte@rt.el.utwente.nl writes:
<< No Terry, I disagree. You can't. With an ohm meter, you _can't_ check a
condenser.
>>
Sorry to say but you are wrong Bert, 38 years as an Electrical Engineer backs
me up. An ohm meter will show the capacitor charging up to the value of the
battery inside the meter, reverse the leads and you get another deflection on
the meter indicating that the condenser is capacitating. An open Capacitor
will not show the charging effect, a shorted one will show zero ohms, a
short.....however in this case where metal is transfering at a rapid rate, the
condenser is open so that no parallel path is available to discharge the
inductive energy stored in the coil. Its all being absorbed in the spark at
the point faces.....
BTW, for those not electrical, condenser and capacitor are the same thing,
capacitor being the prefered word but in the auto world, condenser got
established first. Condensers dry out and go toward open with age, shorts
develop early in the life of a condenser and are usually the result of a
manufacturing defect or some other outside influence.
Cheers,
Terry
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