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Wed Aug 30, 2006 9:35 am

So first off - I didn't get around to swaping out the condenser and points that came with my cardone distributor. I just set the points and that was it.

Yesterday while driving home - I would notice a short cutout of the engine - real quick - like a blip. At 65mph. Soon it kept up and become more often - blip-blip-----blip--blip-----blipblipblip----blip. Then finaly so much that under load - the blips were really frequent and random - causing my speed to slow down to about 45-50.

Now - as it was spinkling and I had a dinner date last night - just limped it home. I found that keeping the RPMs down allowed me to maintain speed without getting whiplash. But - under load - I suffered from this symptom. If I was going downhill - it was different - and there was no bucking.

1600 (or so) DP with stock carb.

What makes me think its the condenser is the fact that the symptoms would mysteriously disappear for a few seconds.

So here's my surmation...

Bad Condenser - Very Very Likely
Bad Points - Likely
Bad Coil - Unlilely (new in Feb)
Bad Gas - Probable - but no bad smell and ran fine on this tank for a good long while - plus symptoms are missing randomly - not bogging down.

Thoughts?

Wed Aug 30, 2006 4:24 pm

checking the condensor per John Muir: First remove the dist. cap turn ignition switch to the run position,then rotate the engine with a wrench until the points open up,then put a piece of cardboard between the points.next disconnect the coil plug wire from the coil.Then take a static timing light and put one end to the coil terminal and the other end to the coil plug wire you disconnected that is running to the distributor. If the light comes on your codensor is dead.
Also make sure your point don't have a tit on them if they do file it off.
Its possible there is water in the fuel.

Wed Aug 30, 2006 5:10 pm

I had a very similar problem last week, Make sure you double check the basics first, In my case the timing was off, causing very similar problem

Shawn

Mon May 09, 2016 7:55 pm

Any solution to this problem?

Tue May 10, 2016 8:25 am

My condenser just crapped out and I got zero spark. Engine would not even fire. No indication that things were going south prior to it.

Put in new consenser and everything was back to normal. For me it was an all or nothing incident.

Tue May 10, 2016 8:31 am

RyanPitcher wrote: Any solution to this problem?

jeremysuper71vw wrote: checking the condensor per John Muir: First remove the dist. cap turn ignition switch to the run position,then rotate the engine with a wrench until the points open up,then put a piece of cardboard between the points.next disconnect the coil plug wire from the coil.Then take a static timing light and put one end to the coil terminal and the other end to the coil plug wire you disconnected that is running to the distributor. If the light comes on your codensor is dead.
Also make sure your point don't have a tit on them if they do file it off.
Its possible there is water in the fuel.

Tue May 10, 2016 8:40 am

A condenser is like a small battery that charges and discharges very fast. The ones in the bus are probably layers of foil with a insulator between them, wound up and stuffed into the small cylinder. One electrical side goes to the cylinder and the other comes out as the wire. The whole job is to absorb the power surges generated by the coil to prevent the points from flashing over and burning up too quickly.

They can fail by shorting out, changing the ability to store electricity, by leaking a little electricity, or by opening up internally. Each situation would behave a little differently. One way they fail, and I have had it happen to me, is that the wire can rub thru and short to the distributor. That usually will kill the engine right now. The classic failure shows up as points that wear out way too fast. Points also flash really bright when opening and closing if the condenser is bad. Instead of a small spark one sees a bright blue flash.

Tue May 10, 2016 11:14 am

SGKent wrote: A condenser is like a small battery that charges and discharges very fast. The ones in the bus are probably layers of foil with a insulator between them, wound up and stuffed into the small cylinder.

:P Unstuffed here, Miami Florida, November 13, 2015:

Tue May 10, 2016 12:29 pm

http://www.nonlintec.com/sprite/cap_failure/

Tue May 10, 2016 4:25 pm

kreemoweet wrote: http://www.nonlintec.com/sprite/cap_failure/

Excellent reading. Thank you.

Aloha
tp

Tue May 10, 2016 6:02 pm

I've never heard/read of a capacitor that is "self healing".(from data page)
I will get a few and witness what does/does not happen.

Tue May 10, 2016 6:36 pm

kreemoweet wrote: http://www.nonlintec.com/sprite/cap_failure/

Gotta love the use of a Lucas bit of electrical gear for an experiment control. The prince of darkness must have been in hysterics.

Wed May 11, 2016 5:17 pm

thank you for replying, i am having the same issues as the top fault does anyone have any ideas? more details here, http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8075072#8075072

thank you.

there is spark and it runs, and runs good when cool, though when it gets hot it starts playing up and can't push it past 80km/h

Wed May 11, 2016 5:46 pm

RyanPitcher wrote: ... there is spark and it runs, and runs good when cool, though when it gets hot it starts playing up and can't push it past 80km/h

I had a bad/weak coil. The symptoms were it would start and run for hours at a time. Sometimes it would die at low RPM. Sometimes it would idle without problems. It would not restart without a half hour of cooling. A wet towel on the coil after shutdown might have cooled it quicker. Don't drive with the towel in the engine compartment. A replacement coil solved the problem.

I had a clogged fuel filter. The symptoms were it would accelerate to a certain speed, but not go any faster. I could slow down for a while and then accelerate to a higher speed, but it would lose power and settle back to the lower speed. The engine runs on the fuel in the carburetor bowl. If a clogged filter or weak pump cannot keep it full the engine will run on what is available.

Aloha
tp

Sun May 15, 2016 6:35 pm

Thank you. This was a issue about 3000k's ago and it now has a new coil is it likely for one to go bad that quickly? and its not having any issues idling, or running at low RPM.

The fuel filter was replaced about 500k's ago and it was dirty, and the new one is still pretty clean. as for the pump. it seems to squirt in what it needs (eyeballing) though the left carb makes a strange sucking sound, and also shirts less fuel then the right. the right has no sound (but also does not have a vacuum advance lead on it).

Taking it to a mechanic today. i'll let you all know what we find out.

Sun May 15, 2016 6:45 pm

RyanPitcher wrote: Thank you. This was a issue about 3000k's ago and it now has a new coil is it likely for one to go bad that quickly?

Coils go bad if the ignition is left on and the engine is not running. My coil went bad helping a lady get her car out of the snow. I left the camper idling, but it died and I didn't get back to it for about twenty minutes. In the cold, the car started and drove ok but later the hot-coil/no-good symptoms started appearing.

Heat is what kills the coil. Twenty years in normal life. Twenty minutes if the points are closed, the ignition switch on, and the engine not running.

Aloha
tp

Mon May 16, 2016 4:03 pm

Thank you.

I think its timing. new points and timing and seemingly better.

Tue May 24, 2016 4:44 pm

Hey all,

Set my valves and points yesterday; started it up, moved it around the driveway, and then it sounded like it was running off and then died.

Went back to it a couple hours later and it wouldn't start; went through the diagnostics and couldn't get spark to coil or plugs; but I was getting power to the coil from the ignition side and the distributor side.

Switched out the distributor with one ready to go and it fired right up and I'm on my way!

Short Story:

My question is; when I was messing around with the points after it wouldn't start, to see if I gapped them correctly, I left the key on and caused a spark between the points when I was trying to adjust

Is it possible that I fried my condenser in the process?

Just trying to learn from it so I don't fry my distributor I popped in!

Thanks so much

1971 Campmobile
1600cc
Mechanical/vacuum distributor

Tue May 24, 2016 5:05 pm

Pretty hard to accidentally damage a condenser if you just don't clobber it somehow like by dropping the dizzy onto a concrete slab. Likely you points have some corrosion and once you messed with them they were no longer passing current.

When I reset points I file them flat first as a matter of course.

Tue May 24, 2016 5:14 pm

scubasteve321 wrote: ... I left the key on and caused a spark between the points when I was trying to adjust

Is it possible that I fried my condenser in the process? ...

IMO Leaving the key ON without the engine running overheats/damages the coil not the condenser. The coil may have cooled enough that a restart with either distributor, points, and condenser may have worked. If the coil was damaged/overheated you may have future restarting when warm problems. You might be able to cool an overheated coil with a wet towel. (Remove the towel from the engine compartment after cooling and before starting.) It might be a good idea to carry a known good coil as a spare. Good on you for having a spare distributor. It's much easier to install and set points and condenser on the bench and replacement on the road is a snap.

Aloha
tp