Reply To: Substituting capacitors for condensers

[mercuryman]

Capacitors Condensers the electrical circuit reacts the same with either, the are different names for the same thing. The voltage is the breakdown voltage rating. If you exceed it the capacitor could burn open and be useless . When the points open the voltage induced in Primary winding ( wires connected to points and ground is in excess of 100 volts . I use 450 volt capacitors but 650 volt can’t hurt. I have checked a lot of condensers with my MERC O TRONIC and they all test about 20% high or more on capacitance test ( UF micro farads ). And a lot of then are shorted . Here are some different magneto UF spects. Bendix .17 to .21 uf, Phelon .15 to .19 uf , OMC .16 to .24 uf and Martin .16 to .20 uf. I think the .22 uf 450 volt capacitor is a good substitute for all these magnetos. You can find them in different physical sizes to fit your application. If you want to go to the trouble you can open up a condenser clean it out and stuff in the capacitor it will look better but work the same as a bare capacitor . One reason for capacitor is to reduce arcing when points open, it there value is out of specs it can causer metal transfer from one contact to the other. I think capacitors are a very good replacement.