1973 Ford Ranchero repetitive distributor condenser failures

Tiny
RONSOY2
  • MEMBER
  • 1973 FORD RANCHERO
  • V8
  • 2WD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 75,000 MILES
The problem started around 2 years ago. The truck is rarely driven, about 500 miles a year. (Vintage collectible truck) Kept in garage. I drove the truck for over 15 years straight before without this problem. Now the problem is severe, happening every hundred miles or so randomly. The engine runs fine.
The problem is a fail of the distributor points capacitor. The engine suddenly begins to misfire and finally will hardly run and ultimately goes dead. Replace the condenser and all is back to normal, for another hundred miles. I am using "auto parts store" replacement capacitors. Am I missing something here? I'm certain that during the first 15 years I had several of these replacement capacitors and didn't have fails. (I didn't get the original equipment capacitor because a dealership is not near me) This problem is very serious, leaving me stranded more than once. Any help on it appreciated.

ron
Wednesday, July 8th, 2015 AT 6:21 AM

1 Reply

Tiny
HMAC300
  • MECHANIC
  • 48,601 POSTS
You are probably missing the ground wire inside distributor that is causing this along with some cheap Chinese part that the auto parts are giving you. Try a borg warner, ac or motorcraft part if you can get it as well as standard ignition parts. These things used to wear out the dist plate where the points ride on the pivot as well as vacuum advance and pin where advance connects to in dist. They run absolutely the best with 30 degrees of dwell if you have a dwell meter or.017" point gap. The ground wire used to be a thin copper wire in dist but you can make one of regular wire no larger than 14 gauge with eyelets and just connect it to the screw on condenser or points. Icannot find a pic to explain what im' talking about.
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Wednesday, July 8th, 2015 AT 7:03 AM

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