Was it common back in the day for.....

[Rob Voska]

Condensers to come off their back plates? If so what can be done other than a few drops of silicone to hold it if it does come loose? How did you fix them?

[VirgLove]

Did we have silicon in a tube "back in the day"....? I started using it in the 70s to seal rims for tubeless tires.

[Dick Teal]

Virg,

I don't think common would discribe the problem because it didn't happen too often. I do remember it happening on a high RPM engine I had. I just changed it instead of trying to fix it.

Dick Teal

[ted johnson]

Hi, Rob. If you try to fix it with silicone, you'll probably wind up insulating it from ground. Throw it away. I can't remember ever breaking one. Of course, most of us Florida rednecks used the big Mallory brass case condensers back then. TJ

[Dick Teal]

Rob,

I should have addressed the last response to you instead of Virg; sorry about that.

I leave for Brodhead tomorrow for my first Vintage event; I hope I'm not disappointed. Hopefully I'll be discussing things like condensors and other back in the day things all week end long.

I may have talked Fred Fox into showing up for a few hours to share his memories of the early days; he didn't race much but he knew/knows the ins and outs of the business back then. Maybe he'll decide that this is something he's interested in and then I can get him to TBO.

Dick Teal

[Rob Voska]

I used to build engines for a kart shop back in the 80's but I never ran into this problem. I have to admit if it can be broken I've broken it. Even parts that don't move .

I have this one 91 I put togehter with a chipped crank, a few needle marks in the crank, kinda some porting ideas I had, just a bunch of junk becasue the real reason was to test some new rod bolts I was tryign out. I figured if they broke it would be no great loss. Well somthing works well in the whole setup and I am scared to take it apart. It don't have much compression and never did but man it runs like hell. Well it finally broke the condenser off. Kinda strange as I have never had this happen to me or seen it before.....but then there's a lot of expierence out there and I thought I would tap into it.

[Dean Seavers]

Rob-

I've found that the Mallory #400 condensor works really well and comes with a cool clip on mounting plate. You can buy them all day long for under $6 and other than enlarging the mounting hole in the clip on bracket for the mounting screw, it's a drop in deal. For 101s and Super motors you have to shorten the pigtail a little but that's it.

Dean

[Darvin Jahnke]

Could it be harmonics?The condenser could be setting up a sympathetic vibration. If as you say the engine was assembled from less than perfect parts, it could be setting up a slight vibration at a certain rpm that affects the mass of the condenser. Or just a bad joint between cond. and bracket.

[Bill Johnson]

Rob,

I have had several of the short green wired condesors to break off the bracket while at speed. I have not had any problems the the long condensor. I now put a bead of silcone on the bracket and condensor where they meet to prevent this from occuring again. I would not try to bond the broken one back to the bracket.

Also make sure the felt behind the condensor is touching the condensor to help absorb vibration. A lot of those felts are worn down and dont do anything except fit in the pocket of the stator cover.

[Rob Voska]

It was the short green wired one that came off. I did use some silicone. No reusing teh old one after the flywheel beat it to an ugly death.