VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Electrical - 6 volt Arcing Points Question

So now I have a question...

On every distributor I have, with the exception of one, it is impossible to actually see the points when the engine is running.
Engines will not, of course, run with the distributor cap off.

Does anyone out there know from ACTUAL VISUAL FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE how much, if any, arcing can be seen at the points with a properly functioning condenser?

I ask because I have one distributor that I CAN watch while running, and there is ALWAYS a small amount of arcing.
And no matter how many new condensers I try, there is always that small, sometimes intermittent, amount of arcing.
The engine does seem to start and run fine though.

So what does NORMAL actually look like?

Hi Ole,

My observation is that there will always be at least a small spark. I remember seeing a few engines with clear plastic distributor caps. When they would run you could see arcing at the points as well as between the tip of the rotor and the electrodes in the cap.

Mr. Gasket stills makes them. The only video I could find shows one on a Chevy Small Block but it has HEI. So all you can see is the rotor to cap arcing.

Thanks Rusty

I've never actually seen a clear cap before.
Interesting.

The distributor I was referring to that I can see is a Wico B-4 on an old John Deere V4 cranking engine.
And they can be kind of finicky so I wanted a "normal" to compare to.

Thanks again.