Burning up Points and Condensor
Le Mans Master
Joined: Feb 2012
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From: Western Massachusetts
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Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Nov 2006
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From: Gettysburg
Always. I have an extra distributor core that I manually bench set the point gap on before installing them. Once its running I fine tune the timing, dwell, and idle.
After owning the car for 35 years, I finally got around to having her scored by NCRS (got TF) but you all have a point about saving the 202 coil for judging. This old girl is definitely no trailer queen. Hopefully next run she continues to pull strong without any further ignition failure....
After owning the car for 35 years, I finally got around to having her scored by NCRS (got TF) but you all have a point about saving the 202 coil for judging. This old girl is definitely no trailer queen. Hopefully next run she continues to pull strong without any further ignition failure....
Le Mans Master
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 5,371
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From: Western Massachusetts
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**** points are often talked about too, suppose that could be operative and you are obviously not a candidate for getting grease on the contact surfaces or otherwise munging up the installation. I'd be interested in knowing the amp reading through the primary circuit with points closed.
Dan
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 209
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From: Gettysburg
I have never had any luck transferring and uploading photos to the forum. Honestly, the contacts on the points did not look that bad, but then a I replaced them as a set with the condenser so either could have actually been at fault.
As per the quality of the points, I don't know what brand Wilcox used, but when they burned out, I replaced the points and condenser with NAPA (Eichlin) components. They failed also. Right now I just have a set of good used ones I keep in the glovebox in it.
Someone stated in the thread that symptoms were 'classic of a coil that fails when it gets hot'. My question to that is would the (failed) coil still read good (i.e 1.85 and 11.99 ohms on primary and secondary) when cold? THAT is the million dollar question since this coil still reads good while cold.
As per the quality of the points, I don't know what brand Wilcox used, but when they burned out, I replaced the points and condenser with NAPA (Eichlin) components. They failed also. Right now I just have a set of good used ones I keep in the glovebox in it.
Someone stated in the thread that symptoms were 'classic of a coil that fails when it gets hot'. My question to that is would the (failed) coil still read good (i.e 1.85 and 11.99 ohms on primary and secondary) when cold? THAT is the million dollar question since this coil still reads good while cold.
Race Director
Joined: Apr 1999
Posts: 10,866
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From: Beverly Hills/Pine Ridge Florida
I have never had any luck transferring and uploading photos to the forum. Honestly, the contacts on the points did not look that bad, but then a I replaced them as a set with the condenser so either could have actually been at fault.
As per the quality of the points, I don't know what brand Wilcox used, but when they burned out, I replaced the points and condenser with NAPA (Eichlin) components. They failed also. Right now I just have a set of good used ones I keep in the glovebox in it.
Someone stated in the thread that symptoms were 'classic of a coil that fails when it gets hot'. My question to that is would the (failed) coil still read good (i.e 1.85 and 11.99 ohms on primary and secondary) when cold? THAT is the million dollar question since this coil still reads good while cold.
As per the quality of the points, I don't know what brand Wilcox used, but when they burned out, I replaced the points and condenser with NAPA (Eichlin) components. They failed also. Right now I just have a set of good used ones I keep in the glovebox in it.
Someone stated in the thread that symptoms were 'classic of a coil that fails when it gets hot'. My question to that is would the (failed) coil still read good (i.e 1.85 and 11.99 ohms on primary and secondary) when cold? THAT is the million dollar question since this coil still reads good while cold.
When the coil is cool, things are back to normal.. cracks minimize, and testing will often show perfect results.
Been there, done that... with Corvettes, and with other cars back in the day.
Team Owner
Joined: Apr 2008
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From: Middle TN by way of KY, OH, VA, IL, CA, FL, NY, SC, HI
When the coil gets hot, things expand.. cracks widen... things short out, and problems present themselves.
When the coil is cool, things are back to normal.. cracks minimize, and testing will often show perfect results.
Been there, done that... with Corvettes, and with other cars back in the day.
When the coil is cool, things are back to normal.. cracks minimize, and testing will often show perfect results.
Been there, done that... with Corvettes, and with other cars back in the day.
Turns out the "hot coil" syndrome above was my problem, but the key for mine was not underhood heat, but resistive loss heat (I2R losses for you electricians out there).
Mine ran great at idle (initially), but after long runs at highway speeds (with 4.11:1 gears that means 3000rpm), any attempt to "blast" up to higher rams was met with an intermittent bucking. Running into higher rpms was not a problem when the engine (and coil) was cold.
As the coil progressively got worse, the time to dropping out (engine bucking) shorter and the rpm at which bucking occurred became lower, until it almost entirely gave up. Right before I figured it out, it would only work when completely cooled off and only for short periods of time.
I've replaced a lot of coils over the years, but never had one go out so slowly, so progressively, and so clearly tied to heat, mostly electrical heat.
Just logging this in in case someone comes along in the future with similar symptoms - it had me stumped until the end.
Last edited by Easy Rhino; Sep 29, 2017 at 09:13 AM.
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Le Mans Master
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Dwell controls the duty cycle of the coil. More dwell = more heat. I see that someone asked you about dwell, but I didn't see an answer.
[edit] I see you did answer.. but what value?
[2nd edit] It wasn't you.. it was the OP.. so the question stands..
Last edited by SDVette; Sep 29, 2017 at 04:03 PM.
