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Old 07-24-2010, 11:31 PM   #6
skip
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Join Date: May 2010
Location: Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin
Posts: 408
Default Re: Repetitive Points Burn out

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Let me preface my remarks by saying, "Beats me."

With a modern upper plate and 1970 Ford V-8 points on the upper plate and with a modern condenser screwed onto that upper plate than I'm thinking several things.


1~That the electroplated hard face of tungsten on each surface of the points is either no good and burning off. Whole batches of new points have been trashed by the factory or dealerships because they simply won't pass juice.
~Or as suggested above loose connections and too many volts going through the points. I really don't know.
~For me with distributor in hand and a continuity meter hooked up to the dist body ground and the points, I make sure the points 'make' and 'break' reliably.
~If you have a bad condenser I'm not sure that you'll pass enough juice through the points to the coil to make a spark.


2~The problem could be that the lower plate and screwed in armored jacked ignition cable that touches the lower plate detent...and that 'touch' energizes the whole electrically isolated lower plate and wire powering the points above on the upper plate may be shorting out with a little induced heat movement. Things grow when they get hot.

~Now there really is no need for the 'tang' that hangs down on the isolated lower plate that contains the detent for the screwed in armored jacket and ignition cable if your not running the old style condenser.
~You could cut that tang off if it's shorting out inside the distributor. And then use the mounting hole used for the old style condenser as a bolting area for a new ignition wire without the armored jacket that will power up the points. Essentially you 'Hot Wire' the ignition without a pop out mechanism or armored jacket.


3~Just a passing thought. A little PVC electric tape around the bottom of the dist cap to 'firm-up' the dist cap to dist body fit may help. And a tad of paper under the rotor to firm that up may take a little wiggle out of the rotor fit above the point cam.

It's the very little things that get over looked that make a good day a bad day. skip.

Last edited by skip; 07-24-2010 at 11:40 PM.
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