Subject: Re: <VV> intermittent spark

[Vairjer at cs.com]

snip>At 07:11 hours 05/30/2006, Ray Rodriguez wrote:
>I'll try swapping in the condenser from my other car tomorrow. My 
>understanding is that when condensers fail they fail, and that it 
>would be highly unusual, essentially unheard of, to have an 
>intermittent problem.

Tony responds:
Allow me to step forward and testify that this statement, although 
rational and logical, is NOT correct. <

Tony is right on, as in the type condensor (capacitor) that is used for 
ignition is made up of a pair of insulated foil windings, one of which makes 
contact with the metal "can" through a "wavy spring washer"at the bottom of the can. 
  During my tenure at Delco Remy in the early 1960's a batch of "wavy 
washers" with less than proper tempering got into production and we had a flurry of 
field failures when the cans got warm and the spring no longer made as good a 
contact with the windings/can....We also (at another time) had a batch of foil 
windings that were "slightly short" which caused substantial failures during 
COLD weather as the length got even shorter after sitting overnight....

However, there are other opportunities for intermittent/poor performance of 
spark with the lead from the points to the coil being a primary suspect, poor 
grounding through the points plate to distributor bowl screws, etc....This is a 
mechanical points distributor??  

Jerry McKenzie