Archive through July 30, 2011

[nbartee]

Thanks guys. If I can get through this summer, I'll make this a winter project & try to replace this bearing.

 

[lbuttke]

Glen

Try replaceing the condencer.}

 

[gcoleman]

My condenser is new (tho that doesnt mean its good) and my points are new as well. Is there any way to test a condenser? im reading how to test my coil now, but i cant find the proper resistance amount for our coils...

 

[kweaver]

Glen - To test the condensor with a meter I charge them up with the battery then let them sit for a while then put the volt meter on them to see if it held the voltage.

 

[gcoleman]

SO, just leave the ignition on for a while and charge'er up or break out the alligator leads and then test'er out?

 

[kweaver]

Glen - Remove the condensor , lay it on non-conductive table top. Put a clip on the condensor body (neg) and another test lead to the wire (+). Attach them to a battery for a couple of seconds. Don't let the wire touch anything or it'll ground it out. Hook a digital meter to the wire then while watching the meter touch the ground meter cable to the body test clip. It happens real fast so watch the meter !

It may take ya a couple trys.

 

[kweaver]

If it takes more than 1 try you have to re-charge the condensor each time !

If it's good it will show the same voltage that the battery is. Check battery voltage too.

 

[kweaver]

Glen - By this , "the old school screwdriver arc test didnt show any power" what did you try to arc ?

 

[gcoleman]

Ken, i stuck a long shafted screwdriver in the plug wire hole on the coil and then put another screwdriver grounded to a head bolt perpendicular to the one in the coil to see if there was any spark between the two when i had my friend turn it over. I also connected and held the spark plug to the same bolt and turned it over, nothing...(after having been zapped by a spark plug as a kid im not too keen on the really old school hand test haha) so i didnt try that.
ive had the screwdriver test work before, but im sure its hardly the right way of doing so

 

[gcoleman]

Also, just tried the condenser test a few times, step one, attach ground lead from battery to body of condenser: check. step two, attach positive lead from battery to condenser wire and allow to sit for a few seconds: check. step three, detach from battery while simultaneously holding ground lead of meter to condenser body: check. most i got out of it was 9.45 volts, battery reads 12.66 volts. not fast enough or is it a bad condenser?

And, fixed the issue with my amp meter killing the power (for now at least) and checked the continuity of the plug wire and plug, both good. also resistance checked the primary coil, it registered 4.5 on my meter set at 200 on the ohm scale, the secondary however wasnt reading anything until i turned the meter up to 2000 on the ohm scale, then it registered a 9.5ish...honestly not 1000% positive on which is really the pos/neg side because of the funny readings i would get switching between posts...