[tubman]

The capacitance of the condenser depends on the inductance of the coil. Just about all "modern" coils are best matched to a condenser in the low .20's micro-farads range. I have a piece of Ford literature that lists all of the original Ford condensers and most are rated at less than the .35 micro-farads usually stated. It also says the "under-capacitance will accelerate point wear while over capacitance will hurt performance".

That being said, the actual capacitance of the condenser makes little difference. It is much more important that the condenser maintains a reasonable value under different temperature and transient voltage conditions. Many older condensers will read fine and rapidly deteriorate when they heat up. Testing a condenser without heat-cycling it says very little about it's suitability in service.