Points ignition wiring question

[Dodge Dude]

My 67 Dart is purely stock with a 267 and I want to leave it that way. Of coarse it has the points ignition. I've owned the car for over a year now and just noticed a disconnecred wire while I was working under the hood on an unrelated problem.
There appears to me a capacitor bolted to the intake through the coil bracket with a wire hanging there attached to nothing. It has a round spade connector and reaches either terminal on the coil. The wires on the coil are tight so I know it did'nt just fall off, someone left it off on purpose or by accident? Should this wire be connected? if so which terminal? I know some of my past mopars that had electronic ignition had one of these but my 67 Barracuda with the slany 6 does not. I'm wondering if this capacitor should'nt even be there, maybe it came with the coil from an electronic ignition car that someone replaced before I got it. The car runs O.K. but maybe with this disconnected I'm burning up my new points!
I've looked in my service manual and do not see mention of it nor do I see one in the electrical diagrams. So what gives?

 

[GotDart]

That is the condenser. It should be wired so it is across the points. One side, the case, is ground. The wire should connect somewhere between the points and the (-) terminal of the coil.

 

[onehellofadart]

Bolted to the intake, could that be a radio noise surpressor?

Condensor for the points would be under the distributor cap, no?

 

[OUTLAW]

yes thats a radio supressor to take ignition noise out of your radio . if you are burning points replace the condensor in the distributor or quit sitting with the key on listening to the radio ...either one will burn the points

 

[GotDart]

I tried to reply to this yesterday but my post got dropped with the server change.

A Condenser is in effect a radio noise suppressor, it is also a specialized capacitor. The condenser's main job in life is to eliminate (or at least greatly reduce) arcing between the contacts of the points and keep them from pitting. This extends the life of the points. Without the condenser, the points would be worn out after only a few hundred miles. The side benefit is that electrical arcing is a major source of radio interferance. Using the right condenser along with resistive core ignition wires should suppress any ignition related radio interferance.

Usually an aftermarket 'radio noise suppressor' is used to eliminate alternator whine. These do look very much like a condenser and are normally placed on the output terminal of the alternator. Perhaps some previous owner didn't know what they were doing and hooked it up to the coil. :dontknow:

 

[Dodge Dude]

I hooked it up to the coil on the terminal with the wire leading to the distributor, car runs fine hooked up or not. I did'nt notice a whine on the radio before I hooked it up so I do'nt know if it makes any difference or not. This appears original (looks as old as the rest of the car)

Does'nt anyone else have one of these on there stock engine?

 

[fishy68]

The terms condenser and capacitor mean exactly the same thing. Condenser is the original name. The name "Capacitor" arrived later.

If it's mounted on the coil bracket (I've seen many on Mopars) it is the radio supressor and should be hooked up on the positive side of the coil not the side going to the dist. By doing so it smoothes out the voltage ripple thus reducing radio interference. You mentioned you didn't notice a whine. The ignition system dosen't usually cause a whine in the radio. That comes from the alternator. Ignition system interference is usually in the form of static.

Condensors/capacitors have a few different uses. Just as GotDart said they are also used to make points last longer. In this case they are used as a surge supressor.

BTW You probably know this and just made a typo but the cubic inch of your Dart is 273 not 267

 

[dgc333]

The terms condenser and capacitor mean exactly the same thing. Condenser is the original name. The name "Capacitor" arrived later.

Capacitor has always been the correct electrical term for the device. Condenser is strictly an automotive term. Just like the correct electrical term for the coil is transformer. In electrical terms a coil is just a single winding of wire and is also used for noise suppresion where as a transformer has two or more sets of windings. In the case of the automotive transformer the primary windinds is low voltage high current that is transformed into high voltage low current in the secondaries.

The capacitor on the side of the coil connects to the positive terminal of the coil and is used for noise suppression back into the electrical system that can cause radio interference.

 

[fishy68]

Capacitor has always been the correct electrical term for the device. Condenser is strictly an automotive term. Just like the correct electrical term for the coil is transformer. In electrical terms a coil is just a single winding of wire and is also used for noise suppresion where as a transformer has two or more sets of windings. In the case of the automotive transformer the primary windinds is low voltage high current that is transformed into high voltage low current in the secondaries.

The capacitor on the side of the coil connects to the positive terminal of the coil and is used for noise suppression back into the electrical system that can cause radio interference.

Dave your correct about the coil being a transformer. The term coil should only be used for an inductor but apparently the auto industry thought different. Although the term condenser is not just an automotive term even though I've also heard others say it is. It was used alot in the early days of electronics. I'm a amateur radio opperator and have previously owned books dating back to the early 1900's that called some condensers. It seems they called the smaller ones (1 pf through 1 mfd.??) capacitors and the larger ones (1 mfd. ?? up) condensers. The question marks are because I'm not really sure where the actual break was just that it was somewhere around that figure. When I went to college for electronics in the early 80's you got corrected real fast if you called one a condenser and you didn't ask why. Alot of the older hams I hear talk still call them condensers. Can't change old habits I guess.