Points and Condensers Failing

a lot of the new points all come from the same warehouse probably in china

edit: I think its turkey actually

 

You'll 'never never know if you never never' .........go there & revisit the situation. I'm just so interested as to 'why'.
Have a go. Do the check & then do the bend. Record as you do.
Look forward to your report.
& then the technical analysts can perhaps explain it.
Cheers

 

I was think more a case of rapid change in dwell/ timing.
I did note that you checked dwell as ideal just a day or so prior but wondering if the deposit was sufficient under the circumstances to alter timing sufficiently to cause a near ' no go' .?

If as the failure sudden ? , without much prior symptoms.

 

I’m off to Hawaii for two weeks tomorrow, so you’ll have to endure the suspense

 

No, I don’t think the timing was affected in any significant way at all by that deposit. The points gap would have still been within tolerance for sure.

The failure was sudden on the Monday driving back to Eden. I got perhaps two or three short surges whilst doing 90 km/hour. Then, the fire went out as I crested a hill and then rolled to a stop.

However, now I’m wondering whether the trouble I had starting Harry on the Friday (took several minutes, including a bit of fiddling with the dizzy to get it going, which I suspected a condenser but wasn’t 100% sure) and on the Saturday morning the backfire through the carburettor that caused my carburettor needle to stick open, which in turn foiled my efforts to go on the cruise, were the first signs of this issue with the points.

 

Chris the primary voltage is around 150 volts, 12v into the coil and this is then boosted by the primary windings to approx 150v the condenser absorbs the spark when the points open to prevent burning, the secondary voltage is then boosted to around 30,000volts and distributed to the plugs via the rotor button. We always aligned the contact surfaces to get a good contact.

 

A thread steal

Rick, grumble. Any advantage/ risk from bypassing the resistance in rotor button?
This is for myself, running lpg.
Should run an electronic boosted spark but that's not in the budget at Mo.
Radio interference not a concern.
Nor is any accelerated plug wear.

Would it give any spark improvement.?

Still running points, copper leads, resistance plug caps.

Ta.

 

I have seen a lot of rotors with a wire soldered across the rotor and in extenuating circumstances have done it myself, the only disadvantage that I am aware of is the radio interference. I can remember a lot of years ago when some cars came past our house the TV used to chatter and have lines across it as the screen, fortunately this doesn't happen anymore because there are very few cars without resistance leads in saying that the VW does have copper leads but the resistance is the spark plug connector.
There would be a spark improvement and I don't think plug wear would be a problem.
Note this is an opinion only and not a recommendation.

 

Thanks.
I will try one and see if any change then quantify when I finally get it on a dyno.

Actualy runs ok up to 5700RPM so can't be too bad as is but will be testing a few parameters eventually .

 

My opinion
Wire wound resistance leads (I've got flame throwers with the VW blanking ends, talk to Kai)
No resistance anywhere else (including plugs)
You need all the spark you can get with lpg.
Lack of resistance does not wear plugs, combustion and length of use does

 

The resistance makes no difference to your spark whether it is in the rotor, the connectors or the leads. The voltage is so high and the current so small.

With LPG you close the gap up a bit, only use single electrode plugs and keep all of your insulation in very clean condition. Especially on the coil and cap.

 

True re voltage .
Yep, running BP7EY.
6.3 gap.

Thus, given the extra grunt now avail due to better advance curve I may revisit testing at lean mixes but expect spark may be first area to show issues.

 

If everything is good it should be OK.

Just for anyone else that is not familiar with LPG, it has a higher resistance than petrol vapor so the electrons being very lazy try to find an easier path to earth. This will show up dirty distributor caps or bad plug connectors that would work fine on a petrol engine.

 

6.3 or .63mm? 6mm is a quarter of an inch. Just being trivial mate.

 

Yeah. 0.63mm

 

Thanks Syncro. All a learning curve. Nice to understand the flow is more than just fuel & electrons involved!

Cheers