Quote:
Originally Posted by Daves55Sedan
My experience with condensers goes kinda like this; If it starts and runs, leave it alone (especially now that good condensers are very difficult to find). I have run the same condenser in a distributor for 20+ years without fail. There have been a couple of times that a very old condenser, having been rode too hard and put away hot caused the condenser to break down enough that it let me know it was time for a change. After a long trip I had a little trouble starting the next morning. The second morning, the car would not start at all. Changed the condenser and the engine started right up. But I have never had one fail in the middle of a trip before. Not saying it couldn't happen, but maybe much less of a possibility.
If you need to buy a new condenser, I would warn against getting any from the repro parts suppliers. They are Chinese junk and many of them are bad right out of the box and the ones that do work are lousy quality and only last a year or so.
Right now, I am running a Lucas brand heavy duty condenser from NAPA in my '55 Fairlane sedan. Getting good service out of it.
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I agree 100%; if it runs, leave it alone. In my experience, from "back in the day" it was pretty unusual for a condenser to fail. But, they were so cheap, that while in the distributor changing things, why not change that out too? Today, I try not to mess w/anything that is working. I drive my old cars so seldom, maybe only 200 to 400 miles a year, that I rely somewhat on nothing needing work for years at a time
