I have a Mallory Rev Pol dual point distributor on my 55' Gasser that I've had since the 60's. It has two large super duty condensers on the outside of the distributor. I have a couple of extra condensers as spares but over the years they have developed a small crack or two on the outside of the brass casing. I know that these were also used on marine applications, but I'm wondering if they are still good. Was the brass casing used to keep them waterproof in a marine application? I don't need them right now but you never know if I may need them some day in the future.
They can look fine and test bad and look bad and test fine. Find an old school capacitor tester, it will apply a few hundred volts DC on it and tell the tale, along with insulation resistance etc.
there was a way to do a very simple test with an analog volt meter.. my buddies dad was an electronic repairman and showed me how years ago... check mine and they were still good.
Ever 'load' one of these? We used to 'load a condenser' on the Sun machine and lay it on the mechanics' back counter. (mechanics are notorious 'fidgeters', so we'd sometimes get 2 or 3 in a row!) Guy in coveralls standing there, leaning on the counter...picks up this shiny condenser, 'SNAP!' I swear, you could hear the charge sometimes. Coveralls swears, lets go of the now 'cool' condenser... That one's almost as old as the Model T coil trick! Zzzzzaappp! LOL
Simpson 260, look for a needle bounce. Thing is though there's really no substitute for testing them with real juice, several hundred volts worth. Insulation resistance is another. This is how a good capacitor can zap someone the next day. The modern DMM work fine for testing capacitance on new capacitors, but that's about it.
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