Condenser issues

Speedfreak

Active Member
2000 SC. Can anyone throw any light as to why my car seems to burn through condensers every couple of hundred miles? The car runs beautifully then after a while she suddenly becomes very lumpy with the odd backfire, swap the condenser over and guess what, the problem goes away! She is now running beautifully again for possibly a few hundred miles when then all of a sudden the condenser fails. I do get some warning, where I get the odd hiccup as I’m driving along, and that normally starts within about 20 miles of replacing the condenser, however on a two hour journey on a main road she might only do it four or five times .What could be causing the condensers to give up so quickly? Any ideas or answers really appreciated.
 
Hi, Because they're made in the far east and their quality control is variable. Try and see if you can get hold of NOS stuff, there's a better chance of it lasting longer than 5 minutes.

Colin
 
Chalky is bang on the money here chuck the points in the bin and go to an electronic ignition no more adjusting the points,
The second problem why is are the points giving out on you in the first place,
Personally I would think to myself when was the last time it had a good service, I bought mine new coil new dizzy cap with brand new leads, and spark plugs, and if you buy the the electronic ignition from power spark not to sure but I think it comes with a new arm as well
if not get a brand new arm, you might need to check the timing again, speak with power spark they are really helpful guys will even make you leads to fit the dizzy not the crap on ebay with screw in leads. this is all made to fit.
It made a world of difference to my P6.
 
2000 SC. Can anyone throw any light as to why my car seems to burn through condensers every couple of hundred miles? The car runs beautifully then after a while she suddenly becomes very lumpy with the odd backfire, swap the condenser over and guess what, the problem goes away! She is now running beautifully again for possibly a few hundred miles when then all of a sudden the condenser fails. I do get some warning, where I get the odd hiccup as I’m driving along, and that normally starts within about 20 miles of replacing the condenser, however on a two hour journey on a main road she might only do it four or five times .What could be causing the condensers to give up so quickly? Any ideas or answers really appreciated.

The reason for the failures is explained here. Try purchasing one of Martin's good quality ones, he does points as well.
Delco condenser: 829111,829107,1861709,1866049,18655972, 1869704,1882239, Lucas Condenser 484249, 400308, 407044, 54411935 / DCB105, 54413006, 23D4 22D 23D DM2 25D DM6 DM4 lucas distributor, Lucas condenser number 423871, GDC101. Lucas condensers from Distributor Doctor
 
As a matter of interest is the coil connected the correct way round with the negative terminal to the distributer, assuming negative earth or positive to distributer with positive earth .
 
Red to positive side of coil
Then black to black wire that is on the negative side of the coil is now removed from coil and is just connected to the black wire
Also disconnect your car battery before fitting as the electronic ignition can be damaged and not work ever again.
 
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great article by Steve Mass there Ron. I had a look and the picture he paints is pretty bleak, electronic ignition all the way then !!
 
I love points ignition. What other system allows you to keep a full repair kit in the glovebox ?

I can remember having a Mobelec electronic ignition system on my first 3500S. It kept failing intermittently and I ended up converting back to points at the side of the road. It took about 10 minutes and from then on it was points all the way.
 
I may be tempting fate but I have only put 3 capacitors in my Land Rover over 30 yrs ( Circa 50K miles) and then they haven't actually failed such the car wont run. I do wonder what is going on.
 
I can remember having a Mobelec electronic ignition system on my first 3500S. It kept failing intermittently and I ended up converting back to points at the side of the road. It took about 10 minutes and from then on it was points all the way.
Exactly !
I had an Elan Sprint on Lumenition, never did run right, in desperation one day I threw a points distributor on it just out of the spares bin and it went like a bloody rocket !
 
Approximately a year on from fitting a new condenser and a new coil from the distributor doctor, and that equates to about 1000 miles, and I can happily report that everything seems to be running smoothly. Normally would’ve done a bit more mileage, well what was locked down and everything!
 
I've bought a few cars with disconnected lumenition units fitted...I never got any of them to work. I tried a firefly Capacitor discharge unit (with points) running 1.5mm spark plug gaps and it was awesome, when it worked, which was most of the time but I couldn't just change back to points with those plug gaps. I then made an electronic system up and used that for a while with normal plug gaps but it got fried when the car caught alight. Current setup is a pertronics unit and Magnacore leads. Guaranteed to start every time, even after sitting for four years. The leads made the biggest difference; I'm running about 12:1 compression ratio so it needs every joule it can get to fire. The idle smoothed out immediately with the new leads. I had similar leads made by Mallory before the fire but they were also torched....
 
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