Reply To: Will these Capacitors Work?

[David Fallang]

Tom, You seem to grasp these condenser issues pretty well. Could you help me understand why a failed condenser affects performance. I’ve read and re read W. Mohat’s excellent magazine articles about condensers and magneto technology. I think I understand how the condenser protects the points from arcing by absorbing a bit of the peak energy from the primary coil (current/voltage). But is the poor performance associated with condenser failure ONLY a function of damaged points or does the condenser affect performance in some other way? In these older engine schematics the condenser isn’t even part of the secondary winding circuit. A failed condenser would be unable to moderate the primary coil voltage resulting in a higher PRIMARY voltage spike which, if anything, should result in an even higher voltage spike from the secondary coil. Of course that higher voltage spike would be aborted as soon as ignition took place, but hypothetically would be advantageous (except for arcing to and burning the points). What am I missing?