Question for Bruce

[NovaNewfie]

Bruce in a post a couple of posts down you say "A bad condenser is rare; you can tell if the points are pitted/burned w/ metal transfer." When I took my distributer apart I had to file the points back down flat as they didn't "look" right to me.
If my condenser is bad will I still have fire?

 

[Bruce (VA)]

By using a point file, you've considerably reduced the life expectancy of your points. Points have a thin metallic coating on them to help reduce burning & you've removed it. To dress points, use card stock, a clean dollar bill or a brown paper bag. When points cost $3 & I made $1.25 an hour, I filed them. If the tractor stops on me & the points are burned, I'll file them to get it running again & change them out as soon as I can.

The more important question, as you know, is why the filing was necessary in the first place.

Usually burned points will have pits on one side & raised areas on the others. Sometimes they just wear unevenly because they were misaligned. They will most always discolor as they have a coating on the surface. The usual causes of burned points are condenser failure, a decreasing gap caused by wear on the rubbing block, mis-alignment, sanding w/ a point file, excessive current, setting an incorrect gap, leaving the ignition key on w/ the points closed & poor quality metal. I've heard of points being welded shut, but I've never seen it happen.

W/ a bad condenser, you probably won't have spark & if you do, it won't be for long as the points burn. Sometimes (I hear)they will just short & that means no spark. Bottom line.......nearly all condensers replaced on these N's do not need to be replaced. And I do it all the time!
50 Tips

 

[NovaNewfie]

My points were new and I usually take the battery cable off. One day apparently I left the cable on and one of my sisters kids who were up visiting from NC must have turned the key on. The tractor started and worked fine for a couple of weeks but I figured thats what happened to the points. They weren't much for points they came in my ignition kit, I had to remove the top washer on the post and file down the bushing in the points so I could even get the cotter key in. One side of the points was discolored and rough (the side on the plate)in the middle around the hole in the contact and the other side was raised in the middle.

 

[Anonymous-0]

condenders fail.. i worked electronic service for many years. they call them capacitors. back in the sixties and seventies when all cars had points and condenser.. i hauled a spare in the glove box. they will dry out inside and give you a sudden failure. i have even put my spare in someone else's auto to get them going.. one time was a guy that had just picked his truck up from a garage . tune up.. and condenser failed on the way home. bruce is not kidding you when he says bad condenser will cause point burning.. ufd. value has to be right too.. too much capacitance or too little capacitance will cause more wear on one or the other contact.

 

[NovaNewfie]

What is UFD value?

 

[tooner]

UFD is an attempt to express "Micro Farads". The actual symbol consists of the greek letter "mu". (It's symbol looks like a lower case, cursive "u") followed by an upper case normal "F". MicroFarads are a measurement of capacitance...essentially the number of electrons that can be stored on the cathode plate of an electrolytic or ceramic disk capacitor.For some reason, probably only known to 'Ol Henry and "Boss Kett"(ering),the auto industry has always called electrolytic capacitors "condensors". Although they're obsolete(as are distributors)in modern vehicles, they're still used in several other places in vehicles to smooth out voltage surges or store electricity, for instance, to fire off airbags if the battery cable should be severed in a wreck.(just a little background/ history.)
Hope this helps,
TOONER