Condensor Problems

Colorado Greg

Colorado Greg

Senior Member
I went for a drive in the mountains today and I discovered what a bad condensor will do to the runability of your car. It misses, sputters, coughs, backfires, no power etc...... I drove up the mountain without any problems and had good (for a stock A) power. Stopped for lunch and when I started the car, it seemed to have a slight miss. This just got worse over the next 5 miles or so. It was acting like a fuel problem so I tore the carb apart and found nothing wrong. Still would not run right and I had few extra condensors, so I put a different, used, condensor in and she ran great. Back on the road and by the time I got home she was starting to miss again and seemed to be low on power.

What makes condensor's go bad? I have heard that heat from the manifold will kill them but everything was running very cool today, only 70 degrees out. '29 Coupe with original distributer parts.
 
2 months ago my car suddenly behaved exactly the same way. I also changed condensers & got the same result...no change in behavior. Then, I checked my points. Gap had narrowed & I reset between .18 and .20 after lightly cleaning. I also made sure points were just beginning to open against cam lobe when timing pin hit indent in timing gear. I also made sure "pigtail" wire was tightly connected at both ends and spark plug top nuts held spark wires firmly. So far my car has run well since...even in 95++ weather. Hope this helps.
 
Mitch Bunkin in PA said:
..my car suddenly behaved exactly the same way. I also changed condensers & got the same result...no change in behavior. Then, I checked my points. Gap had narrowed & I reset between .18 and .20 after lightly cleaning. I also made sure points were just beginning to open against cam lobe when timing pin hit indent in timing gear.
Click to expand...

Same here, the rubbing block wears down to a point where the gap is way too close. Opened it up, re-checked timing and no more problems.
 
There was nothing wrong with the points or gap. I checked to make sure I had a gap but didn't do anything with the points. I only replaced the condensor and it ran great untill I was almost home then acted up again, probably 2 hours of driving. Seems like the used condensor I put in was starting to go bad.

I just want to know if I should look for any other problems or if this is just a symptom of these old cars/parts. I had about 800 miles on the first condensor that went bad.

Thanks!
 
Greg, mine started missing a few weeks ago. It would miss a little in first but in third it would really start to buck and cough. I thought fuel at first but before i got in to that i ordered 2 new condensers from snyders. Installed one and have not had any problems since. I remember reading that sometimes they start to fail and breakdown when getting hot. Have an extra in the tool box now.
 
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