Condensors & Starting Hot -1955 D

[bmetcalf]

That "sparked" a memory! I took a night auto mechanics class when I was in high school. The teacher had an ignition system mounted on a board connected to a battery. Naturally I had to take the distributor cap off and turn the shaft to see the points operate. Well, I discovered that the high voltage had to go someplace and that someplace was up one arm and down the other. It was a learning moment for sure.

 

[Howard]

Since we’re on distributor memories, here’s one that might be relevant if all else fails.

I got home late one night with the car (sorry) misfiring and banging and generally not too good. The distributor cap had cracked. Fortunately in my “may come in useful” drawer there was a similar cap, and I got the car running ready for work the next day. Several days later the engine stopped and wouldn’t start. Suspecting the points had closed up, I took the cap off the distributor and flicked the points. Fortunately I hadn’t switched off the ignition and there was a flash across the cap (it was dark). When I repeated it, I could see a little lightning strike across the contacts inside the cap. The cap hadn’t been cleaned properly, and tiny pieces of wire wool had magnetised, and formed a chain between the contacts, shorting it out. I bet that’s not in a Haynes Manual! J
H

 

[John Cone]

After suffering some time of misfireing or running on one pot i started to eliminate the problem, changed the plugs which worked for a day! Changed silicon leads for real copper jobs, checked the points and timing, changed the distributor cap as mine had four HT outlets, proberbly off an Austin seven. Never did it cross my mind to try the condenser because it was new about 18 months before, how wrong i was. New one fitted end of story. I now carry a spare.