730 gas ignition

been fighting the 730's ignition system for over a year now, seems like it keeps burning out the condenser, put a new condenser on it yesterday and in less than 1/2 hour of run time it is back to not firing every time and banging and cant hardly move it under its own power in 1st when its like that.

initially after putting new condenser in it ran good and fired every time even when riding the brakes in 5th. then moved some wagons with it and next thing we know its skipping and banging and wont even speed up past an idle when you can keep it running long enough to try speeding up the engine.

what do we need to do or check? or should we just bite the bullet and put an electronic ignition on it and be done with it (which is looking more appealing every time)

thanks

Unless your luck is terribly bad, the condensers aren't failing in mass quantity.

When it screws up, and gets shut down and cools off, and you then replace the condenser and it runs fine for a while, likely the coil has cooled off or your mucking around in the distributor has temporarily made a poor connection better.

I wish you had access to an ignition 'scope, it could be instantly seen what is messing up.

shouldn't be a connection issue. have changed the points, terminal and isolater that goes through distributor, new wire from coil to distributor, still has old coil but tried a new one and made problem worse, and don't have the new coil anymore. this last time i discovered that i had the points set wrong and they were closed when they shouldn't have been. i opened them up more but didn't use a feeler gauge, how ever they are closing when they are supposed to. there isn't any rust or corrosion to speak of inside the distributor.

i took the last condenser appart and the end of the tin canister opposite the wire was all black and burnt looking

Make sure your by-pass ignition resistor and wiring is hooked up correctly and working. You may be getting a full 12V to the ign. all the time.

I've heard of new out of the box condensors going bad (but several in a row???)but you may have another problem.

First of all use a gauge to set the points gap instead of guessing.

Next do you know the condition of and wiring on your ballast resistor system. I ask because if the ballast was somehow shorted there would be excess coil current causing it to heat up (maybe fail until cool down) and, likewise, high points current which after a warm up could cause problems.

Next if the tractor is as original, the coil should be a 6 Volt since the ballast drops around 6 volts leaving 6 on a 6 volt coil. IS YOUR COIL A 6 VOLT COIL?????? If its a 12 volt coil and the ballast is still in place and okay, THERE WILL BE A WEAK SPARK.

Put a voltmeter on the coils input and with the points closed and ignition ON if it has a good working ballast wired correct there would be 5 to 7 volts. But if the engine was cranked over while it was cranking the voltage should RISE to battery voltage if the by pass system and switch are good and working.

Not being there its hard to say the problem but I would look at the coil to see if its a 6 volt and look at the ballast system to see if the ballast is okay and not shorted.

John T

The only two ways I would know of to destroy a condenser is over voltage or over temperature. It really sounds weird that the tractor ran worse on a new coil.

#1, clean up your points, gap them correctly and leave them alone.

#2, I suspect you have another issue going on.

looks like a good candidate for a pertronix kit and a new 12 volt coil

I installed one on my 60 and couldn't be happier, faster cold starts and runs smoother!

I have had similar issues on a tractor running the wrong coil. Follow John T's advice and make sure you have the correct coil! I also agree with Kemper, put the Pertronix kit in it and be done with it. I have put several in and had wonderful results.