9 replies to this topic

[Cooperman]

Today I've been working on my 1990 Cooper road-rally car which had two issues.

 

First of all, it wouldn't start, despite having been recently rebuilt including a new Aldon 'Yellow' points-type distributor. The problem was a failed condenser. It seems that the current available condensers are not fit for purpose as I had to fit a new one to my Grandson's 998 recently, despite it not having done much work, then another one a month later when the new one failed.

Fortunately my cars both have remote condensers screwed onto the triangular panel adjacent to the brake master cylinder and I have two fitted alongside each other on one of my cars to enable quick changes should one fail. I'll now fit a second one to the other two cars.

 

The speedo has not worked since the rebuild. I did fit a new, longer cable to allow for the Brantz Trip Meter sender to keep it away from the hot exhaust. Neither speedo or trip meter worked. That meant that the cable was not turning at all.

I took the cable off at the gearbox end and checked that the drive spindle was turning when the car was running and in gear. I slipped a small allen key into the drive, jacked the car up and ran it in 2nd gear and the key was turning. The deduction was that the cable end was not tight enough in the drive spindle, so I put a blob of weld onto the end of the cable, linished it down into a square section of the right size, re-fitted it and everything works.

 

Can anyone recommend a make of 12 volt condenser which might be reliable?

[imack]

Both KAD and Swiftune sell remotely mounted 'competition' condensers.

https://kentautodeve...s/kad-condenser

https://swiftune.com...-condenser.html

[Cooperman]

Thanks for that. The KAD one looks like it is a twin so fail-safe.

[floormanager]

Distributor Doctor (martin).  Never had one fail

https://www.distributordoctor.com/

 

[Spider]

A friend of mine, who is still running points, had 2 condensors go in very short order. The seconds still had 'something' in it as it would start and run, but sounded and behaved exactly like it was running out of fuel.

[Cooperman]

I have just ordered two better quality ones and my two cars plus my Grandson's will have two condensers mounted outside the dizzy with the ability to switch from one to the other in a minute or so.

[Boycie]

Another thing to watch for with the current screw-fit speedo cables, is the inner moving too far down and disengaging from the speedo head.

They do this because the white nylon retainer at the top of the cable cracks and loses its grip - mine lasted all of one mile.

 

The only fix in my case was superglue.  It's a good job the speedo cable is so easy to fit !!

[floormanager]

I had a green lead condenser supplied by a reputable mini spares supplier last 3 miles.  It didn't even last the road test after fitment.  Ones from Distributor Doctor (and points) still going strong.

Edited by floormanager, 16 April 2023 - 06:23 PM.

[Cooperman]

It's such a fiddle changing the condenser inside the dizzy. I now just screw the condenser onto the triangle plate flange on the RH bulkhead end and run a wire to the coil negative. Then there is no need to poke about inside the dizzy cap. In fact I now fit two condensers there with a bullet connector on each and a bullet cup on the wire from the coil neg. Solves the problem.
I never remember having condenser failures in the past, it's only the last few years.

Edited by Cooperman, 17 April 2023 - 11:26 AM.

[68+86auto]

A Cornell Dubilier 224PPB102K or any other similarly rated and sized capacitor can be used.

 

https://nonlintec.co...te/cap_failure/

 

I haven't used them yet as I want to pot them into a box, I just haven't got the potting compound yet.