I have a 71 350 and I have a coil with a condenser of some sort attached to the left side of the coil...I'm wondering what this is..is it a suppressor....can I forget about adding one..OR should I use one...you can see it at the upper left corner of the pic. This thing fit into the coil bracket.[/ATTACH]
Ones out of a points distributor will work. ..Chinese ones are shit but your not relying on them to run your engine. My generator has one too. They were also on some regulators on 50's cars if the gen was hard to get like on Yblock Fords.
I've told this story before, but it applies here, so.... I had OT late 60's Chevelle w/ a 327, I took out the AM radio and installed a fancy schmancy new AM/FM Cassette stereo, and when I got done with the install and fired it up it had a terrible motor boat noise through the speakers that followed the rpm's of the engine. I mentioned it to my dad and he took me out to the car and had me pop the hood, then he took the coil wire to the distributor cap off and put a loop in it, a loose knot, and put it back on, and told me to start it up. I did, and I turned on the radio, and the noise was gone. He said it was an old trick. If you take that suppressor off and you have ignition noise in the radio, try that trick, see if it doesn't help.
Sorry I went to bed early.....This engine was apart when I got it...so I'm not sure about the points set-up....However I did purchased a new breaker set with the points and condenser apart from each other and the condenser would not fit under the cap..???...so I bought a set that comes together. with the point and condenser...it fits BUT... it looks like it will be very hard to set the points with the feeler gauge with this dual set-up......I cannot even see the point set...SO....I'm wondering if I should just install the points and that the condenser for the points is this one??.....NOTE...The diagram below would be this kind of hookup I guess..with the condenser outside the cap area..
The condenser (and the points) in that diagram are inside the distributor. The distributor is not shown, that's all. The suppressor condenser is not shown in this diagram.
In the above drawing it would not matter if the condenser were in the distributor or outside the distributor. It would work fine either way. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
^^^^^ That's what I'm getting at. If it is a condenser that was(?) mounted outside it appears(?) to be mount to the positive side of the coil which "would" be incorrect. Follow the diagram as shown (post 9) and see what happen's?
Condensers were (sometimes) installed at both the voltage regulator and armature terminal at the generator, and the + side of the ignition coil. And, knots in the coil wire. All in the name of RFI or noise suppression. I think a condenser installed at the armature terminal on the voltage regulator may help with the regulator point longetivity, by reducing the amount of harmful arcing. They open and close 40 or 50 times a second or somesuch.
Right, but it wasn't just AM radio reception that was the concern. Stray RF interfered with televisions and later, computerized engine controls and golly knows what else.
without seeing your cap hard to answer.but if it has the trap door you set points with a hex key and a dwell meter not feeler gauge
Looks like I'm resurrecting an older topic...I was curious about that shiny metal can attached to my ignition coil. I've upgraded the ignition to an electronic setup (including a new dizzy). The factory radio doesn't work. This car is a Mopar with the orange ignition box. So my question is, can I just throw the condenser in my spare parts box, or do you think by not having it in place I'll have interference with the Mopar ignition? P.S. -- I recently installed a brand new Flamethrower coil. Sent from my Pixel 3a XL using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
What squirrel said, if it’s an old condenser find someone like him (or me) that still run points, can’t buy a decent new one anymore. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Ahhh....crap, didn’t read the whole thing, saw condenser and your post and stuck my foot in my mouth. I’m an idiot. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
From my experience you needed one when you ran real wire like Packard 440. As manufacturers changed to carbon impregnated most of it went away. I still have one street near me I drive a lot where there is 3 different voltages on a string of poles 66KV, 12KV, and 4160 where every car with AM on has static..
If it's an original, the condenser itself would probably be more likely to kill the ignition. Noise suppression (capacitors) for RFI are installed on the + side of the coil to ground. They can start to "leak" or short to ground, sometimes. I would test it for insulation resistance and the rest of it if I just had to install one. Might be interesting to know exactly what they used, I've never really seen the spec, they aren't the same as an ignition condenser, have heard they are about 0.5uF. The cork sniffers pay top dollar for those things, to look period correct. Electrically there are better choices. They make sense I suspect, if running a generator w/ mechanical points voltage regulator. Should keep them cleaner. Armature terminal to ground.
A condenser on the power side of the coil is there to bleed off AC electricity in the circuit. The condenser on the points side is to aid in field collapse in the coil.
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