Coil or condenser over heat

[Patrick L.]

I made a shield that mounts to the heater manifold. I can't say whether it was worth the work, but, I don't think it hurts.

 

[dansluck]

DNL, I have had this happen before. A trick on the road is to turn the coil over ,wait 5 minutes and fire her up. Oil cools the coil when primary wire points up. You will need a longer coil to distributer wire. I live 45 miles out of town and carry an extra coil, 3 condenser and both types of points. Someone always has an ignition problem when you tour Nevada and are a long ways out of town.
Merry Xmas Dan

 

[Bill G]

I have never tried this so I am asking for my own future info. Would the "bad" condenser that is still in the circuit have any effect in the running of the car after the "spare" condenser is connected? Seems to me it would, especially if it was shorted out??

I would say yes. A bad condenser is likely to have leakage that effectively shorts it out. Connecting another condenser in parallel will probably not help out unless you pull out the condenser in the distributor body. --My opinion--

 

[nkaminar]

Back in the day (1960's) I drove various Model A's all over and never had to fiddle with the coil or condenser. I kept the points adjusted but it was not a constant task. I did not carry a spare coil or condenser. They were all stock from the factory cars.

My 1929 pickup, which was "restored" sometime in the 1980's, had a condenser fail. So that tells me that Ford knew what they were doing.

 

[Bill G]

Back in the day (1960's) I drove various Model A's all over and never had to fiddle with the coil or condenser. I kept the points adjusted but it was not a constant task. I did not carry a spare coil or condenser. They were all stock from the factory cars.

I sometimes think that we fiddle with these cars just for the sake of fiddling with them, and as a result we over-fiddle and mess things up, only to have to go back and fiddle some more. A vicious cycle.

 

[Patrick L.]

I agree about 'fiddling'. Most of us like to fiddle.

As far as condensers, I don't remember any I've checked being shorted. They are either good or open. Thats not to say one can't short, I just don't remember any shorting. But years ago if one was bad it just got replaced without checking.