Modern condensers

Ken/Alabama

Ken/Alabama

Well-known member
Anyone know a part number for a modern condenser that will interchange with the V 12 Lincoln condensers? When I say modern I am making referance to the ones you see with the wire pigtail instead of like the originals that has to be screwed in place. I dont know the micrfarad value of the originals.
 
I've got service bulletins here but no Lincoln parts book, pretty sure H-12300 is the H series 12 cylinder one...Ford says .31-34 microfarads. Earlier bulletin expands that to .30-34...
All the early Fomoco specs are easy to find, but I've never found a decent list of modern condensers by MF despite poking around in a bunch of Standard and Echlin books. Anyone have a good listing??
I'll post lots of Olde Numbers if you'll post the new ones!
 
The 42-48 original Ford condensers are supposed to be 0.25-0.32 mF. NAPA replacement for this has the wire lead, it is FA66. At one time I tested the NAPA condensers for 35-36 and 37-41 for value and found them all to be in the 0.25 range.
 
I don't mean to hijack this thread, but can any ignition experts out there explain why condensors would have different ratings in the first place?

I know enough that point dwell charges the condensor and the coil, and the points opening causes the coil to discharge to the sparkplugs. I know the condensor is there to buffer the points from getting burned. I know that 4, 6, and 8 cylinder engines will have differing dwells and perhaps different condensor ratings.

I'm a confirmed amateur, but it escapes me since ignition points and V8 dwell are essentially all the same and voltage is voltage, why would condensors be different?
 
Well...'32-48 dwell is substantially longer than '49 up, and values there differ...but I sure don't know the answer.
And for the common '37-41 types...values differ between the common 78 one and the much less common 91 one used with a different coil on the same distributor type.
So, whassup?
 
Im considering trying two condensers from say a 50 Ford with a 6 cyl. The Lincoln ignition system is two seperate ignitions each running 6 cyls .
 
I think those would be Ford 7RA condensers....21-25 MF
'42-48 Ford is .25-.32 in the chart...somewhere there has to be a listing out of currently available Echlin or Standard specs!
 
I think you'll find that just about any 12v point condenser will work just fine in a 6v ignition.

Jack E/NJ
 
I learned this stuff in aviation school years ago.

The micro farad capacity of a capacitor is matched to the contruction of the coil's number of turns for the primary and secondary as well as the voltage input & dwell time.

Flux flow in a coil or inductor only works if there is either an AC (alternating current) or a pulsating direct current (half wave instead of full syn wave of AC). The points create the half wave pulsating direct currect when they open and close. The condenser starts to build a charge as soon as the points close then it blows out the electrical pressure it has built up during the dwell cycle at the split second the points open again. The amount the capacitor discharges is part of the original design of the system. You don't want it to discharge too much with too high a capacity rating or discharge too little with leakage or too low a rating for the systems inductor coil. If the capacitance is too low the points will arc & burn. If the capacitance it too high, the coil will loose efficiency and the spark at the plug will suffer for it. When it is just right, it will give peak efficiency and the hottest spark the coil can induct. A lot of old sparky's refer to it a ringing the bell with a perfect inductive resonance. A system that works right will keep doing that consistantly through millions of cycles with no defects.

Now I just wish they could make a decent condenser that would work just right. I'm sure the points & coils would wish the same thing if they could.

Kerby
 
Mike51Merc: Their is a very good article dealing with the basic ignition circuit, it can be viewed at: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~scphys/courses/E1b/E1b_3b.pdf
The value of the condenser is picked to keep the secondary of the coil at resonance, High volt and low current. The primary of the coil directly effects the secondary, the primary is made up of a resistance, inductive & capacitive circuit, of course the capacitor is the condenser. Changing the value of the condenser directly effects the secondary output of the coil, also changing the coil, to another with different charistics without changing the condenser to "Re-Tune" the circuit will have an effect on the replacement coils output.
 
The IH-200 was for a tractor with a magneto. I have used hundreds of them on the Fords and Lincolns with no problems. G.M.
 
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