VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 New problem with the 30 Roadster

Well, just when I thought I had things worked out, after I had left the ignition on by mistake a while back, I seemed to have fixed the no spark situation, thinking I might have fried something. Did get it running again but in the meantime, I thought I would replace the plug wires and the coil, not knowing how old they might be.

Got the new coil and wires and she fired right up.....but once warmed up a bit, dies out. One thing I did not replace was the old condenser.

Wondering if the new wires and new coil are revealing the condenser is malfunctioning or could be something else. Reset the points at .025, and the new coil is not overheating and I'm getting a spark at the points when I manually turn it over with the distributor cap off. I did loosen the distributor and turn it while the cat was running and smoothed out the rough idle, secured it, but as the car warmed up, she dies.

Condenser is the suspect.

So, just for the heck of it, I put the old coil back in and the problem stopped! I've heard of bad coils right off the shelf, so I'm thinking I hit a the jackpot. I will replace the condenser just in case. I tested the old coil and it seemed ok, but replaced it anyway.

Keep the new condenser in a dry container for possible future use. I have had new off the shelf coils, points, condensers all defective in the past.

Just a heads up. Glad the Gremlins have decided to allow you to use the car for a while. They will return sometime in the future.

Yeah.....I'm holding off on the condenser for now. Same with the plugs. I'll gap em at .040 and call it a day. The folks at the Filling Station (Steve) said it sounded like a dud coil to him too.....so at some point I'll return it.