Yes, I know...get rid of your points, etc, etc-I don't want to.
I just changed a condenser with right at 1000 miles on it, and it's not the first I've had give up at relatively low mileage. Talking to other guys in my little niche of old cars says that this is pretty much par for the course these days to the point that the overwhelming advice is to never change a known good condenser.
This one showed up as a typical intermittent failure-the car would idle fine but would stumble on acceleration. As it got worse, I'd get misfires at speed and finally I got to the point where I was limping home so that I could change it(I should know to carry a spare in the car-I had one sitting on my kitchen table). Post mortem showed extensive arcing between the end cap and electrode/dielectric "roll."
Some hunting around shows that even though I mostly hang out in the old British car circles, the problem with condensers doesn't seem isolated to them.
Does anyone know if there's a marker of quality ignition condensers these days? An MG mechanic(John Twist) suggested Blue Streak brand to me the other day, but they seem to have vanished. His other suggestion was to watch Ebay like a hawk for an OLD Lucas one...
I just changed a condenser with right at 1000 miles on it, and it's not the first I've had give up at relatively low mileage. Talking to other guys in my little niche of old cars says that this is pretty much par for the course these days to the point that the overwhelming advice is to never change a known good condenser.
This one showed up as a typical intermittent failure-the car would idle fine but would stumble on acceleration. As it got worse, I'd get misfires at speed and finally I got to the point where I was limping home so that I could change it(I should know to carry a spare in the car-I had one sitting on my kitchen table). Post mortem showed extensive arcing between the end cap and electrode/dielectric "roll."
Some hunting around shows that even though I mostly hang out in the old British car circles, the problem with condensers doesn't seem isolated to them.
Does anyone know if there's a marker of quality ignition condensers these days? An MG mechanic(John Twist) suggested Blue Streak brand to me the other day, but they seem to have vanished. His other suggestion was to watch Ebay like a hawk for an OLD Lucas one...