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alexiskai · 10-20-2024, 09:02 AM

In my experience there are very few working Model B condensers still out there.

A previous comment said that "NOS B condensers aren't very scarce." We should distinguish between NOS and NORS, i.e., B condensers made by Ford vs those made by third parties. NORS B condensers do show up at swaps and on eBay from time to time. I've never seen a true NOS B condenser for sale. If someone is saying "there's lots of NOS B condensers," it's probably because they're looking at their personal hoard.

To be functional, a condenser needs to have the correct capacitance for its application and it needs to not leak (current, not innards) when heated to engine bay temperatures. In my experience testing several dozen NORS B condensers, maybe 10% of them were still functional. The rest had decayed, most likely from improper storage. Of condensers I've tested that were pulled from B distributor cores, none have worked. I've also had the chance to test two true NOS B condensers, both of which worked.

My advice to anyone trying to stick with the B condenser design is to get a good multimeter and learn how to check them, and be prepared to buy a lot of cores before you find a good one. Alternately you can adapt a modern reproduction A condenser, which are quite reliable and should serve without issue.

10-20-2024, 09:02 AM	#37
alexiskai Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2018 Location: Mebane NC Posts: 3,176	Re: Condenser for 1933 model B In my experience there are very few working Model B condensers still out there. A previous comment said that "NOS B condensers aren't very scarce." We should distinguish between NOS and NORS, i.e., B condensers made by Ford vs those made by third parties. NORS B condensers do show up at swaps and on eBay from time to time. I've never seen a true NOS B condenser for sale. If someone is saying "there's lots of NOS B condensers," it's probably because they're looking at their personal hoard. To be functional, a condenser needs to have the correct capacitance for its application and it needs to not leak (current, not innards) when heated to engine bay temperatures. In my experience testing several dozen NORS B condensers, maybe 10% of them were still functional. The rest had decayed, most likely from improper storage. Of condensers I've tested that were pulled from B distributor cores, none have worked. I've also had the chance to test two true NOS B condensers, both of which worked. My advice to anyone trying to stick with the B condenser design is to get a good multimeter and learn how to check them, and be prepared to buy a lot of cores before you find a good one. Alternately you can adapt a modern reproduction A condenser, which are quite reliable and should serve without issue.