Oh ye, wisdom of the list,
A new experience every day, and now for the first time in my life I finally
had a condenser fail on me. The last one lasted several years and 100,000
miles without a problem, and I only changed it out of superstition, or
maybe as a point of preventive maintainance. Now after only several
thousand miles in six months the new one has failed miserably.
I checked everything else in the ignition system, cleaned and/or replaced
the points, rotor, dizzy cap and pug wires, and even tried a different
coil, and the car still ran like crap, would hardly move under its own
power. It should have been a clue when I disconnected the condenser wire
and it didn't make any difference at all. After weeding through all other
possible causes, finally in desparation I removed the new condenser and put
the old one back on. Now it runs like a MG again, cranks right up past the
red line without missing a beat.
Now as something I have asked before but never gotten an answer, aside from
not being a dead short circuit, how do you test one of these little
critters? I think it would be nice to be able to tell good from bad and
not end up with a dud in my spare parts bin again. Anyone have a real
answer? Maybe some educated electrical tech guru on the list? Physics 102
was way too many years ago, and I really don't feel like making a trip to
the library if someone on the list can answer this one.
Thanks in advance,
Barney Gaylord
1958 MGA with an attitude
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