wrote:

>
> > As I said remove the spark plug and you have a resonant circuit that
> > will produce an AC waveform at the resonant frequency. Hook up an
> > O-scope and try it if you don't believe me.
>
> I am well aware that you will get a ringing waveform when the field
> collapses.

Not usually. If there is a spark plug that fires the wave form gets
arrested before it reaches maximum on it first peak. Only if there is no
diversion of the current (by arcing in the secondary) will there be the
damped sinusoidal waveform.


>
> > No they won't they will last forever because the engine won't run.
>
> I have never tried it, actually, but concede that if it should start at all,
> it wouldnt run for long. Have you actually ever tried this?

Oh sure I have. Remember the type of points that had a condenser wire
that just slipped in behind the points spring. After installing new
points I once put the distributor cap and pinched the condenser wire
between the cap and distributor. The engine started up and idled fine,
but as soon as it was revved up the engine stalled and would not
restart. When I open the distributor I found that as soon as the vacuum
advance kicked in it pulled the condenser wire out of the circuit and
the engine killed. After inserting the condenser wire back where it
belonged and carefully routing the wire so that the cap didn't pinch it
again the engine started and ran fine. With out the condenser hooked up
it had a little spark, but the spark was very weak.

Now I'll admit that the weak spark (low voltage) does have something
to do with arcing at the points and you could probably design a set up
that got a higher voltage with a different type point and coil
configuration. So it may be possible to construct a point set up that
worked without a condenser and that set up would probably not last as
long. But that has to do with efficiency. The capacitor is sized so that
it works efficiently. That is it produces the required high voltage with
a minimum amount of current flow. A system without the condenser would
require alot more current flow thru the coil to generate the same high
voltage output, and thus the points and coil would not last as long.

-jim

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