I fitted new points and condenser yesterday to my mini, was running fine when I went for a roady.
This morning on the way to work got about 2km from home and it started to cough and fart, backfiring through the carby and basically running like a dog. Had me stumped, try for about 30 minutes on the side of the road to get it going, but no luck. So I walked home and had a think about what had happened and thought I will put the old condenser back in and see what happens (the old points were RS) Anyway put the old one back in and away it went.
The question is, is it possible that new condenser was no good or is it just a coincidence that it started to run properly again?
Cheers Pete

_________________
A recent study found the average Aussie walks about 900 miles a year
Another study found Aussies drink, on average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year
That means, on average, Australians get about 41 miles per gallon

Kind of makes you proud to be an AUSSIE

If the condenser is broken it will do what you described. the condenser basically reduces the size of the spark across the points (they spark when they open and close). If the condenser is broken the spark will be bigger and the car will run ok for a while when the points are still clean/new, but will burn the points over time and after you have done a few km (took about 15km on my car) it will start missing. This gets worse and worse as the points burn more and it starts backfiring etc.

I suggest you take the points out and check the contact faces. If they have marks on them then the new condenser you put in is broken so they got a bit burnt. Clean them up a bit with a points file until there are no marks left and they should be good as new. I used sandpaper on mine, but have been told this is a no-no (don't know why).

Edit: and in answer to the question - Yes. My brother's car recently had all sorts of electrical problems caused by new points and a new condenser. We swapped the condenser out and it fixed all the problems. The new condenser that had been put in was actually a little domed on the end

Thanks for the reply, still has a bit of a miss underload at around 2800rpm but goes out at 3000rpm. Will get a new condenser this week and try again.
Cheer Pete

_________________
A recent study found the average Aussie walks about 900 miles a year
Another study found Aussies drink, on average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year
That means, on average, Australians get about 41 miles per gallon

Kind of makes you proud to be an AUSSIE

If the condenser is broken it will get worse, so if it isn't getting worse then your old condenser should still be ok. It never hurts to have a spare though (as I found out when mine broke 100km from the nearest town )

If you haven't cleaned the points after swapping back to the old condenser it is likely that the miss is caused by the points being burnt. You will have to clean them to get it running smoothly again.

New parts are more likely to fail than old parts. Because they haven't been tested under actual conditions.
You often hear of new condensers failing, it is more common than you think.
New fanbelts fall off on the racetrack because they haven't been stretched before being used at full revs.
Other bits need bedding in when they are new.

Treat new parts with suspicion before trusting them on a long trip.

Thanks all for the advice, will clean points tomorrow and see what happens. Will still buy a new one and another set of points and put them in the tool box in the boot.
Cheers Pete

_________________
A recent study found the average Aussie walks about 900 miles a year
Another study found Aussies drink, on average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year
That means, on average, Australians get about 41 miles per gallon

Kind of makes you proud to be an AUSSIE

hey mate i had the same problem about two weeks ago and it ended up being a faulty condensor from factory
.i returned the one just bought got another one and my mini is running really good now .


TUCK3R