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Re: A funny thing happened on the way.....

Hi Chris,

	I assume this is an oil/poly commercial cap.  If it leaked as much oil as
you say, it is probably arcing internally.  Those caps do not have much oil
to loose.  Try cleaning it off really well and setting it in a pan to be
sure it is infact leaking if you can't find an obvious leak.  If it has
failed and the internal damage is light, you may be able to cut it apart
and "fix" it, but best to go to MMCs ;-)

Cheers,

	Terry


At 07:41 AM 03/19/2000 -0500, you wrote:
>Hello, all!
>
>A rather strange thing happened to my coil yesterday, and I'm trying to 
>figure it out. I re-installed the cap (plastic capacitors) on the coil, and 
>by the time I put the coil in the car, and got to my destination, there was a 
>fair amount of oil on the cap, and the base of the coil. This may have been 
>something in the back of the car, although I couldn't find anything, but the 
>cap does not LOOK like it is leaking....I brought the coil back home, and set 
>up to see if the cap was ok. here's where the odd behavior began.
>The coil ran very well for a few seconds, after which time it began to 
>"sputter" and the normal 38-42" arcs were reduced to perhaps 10". this lasted 
>only for a few seconds, and the coil went back to normal. It went in and out 
>of the "sputter" mode.
>
>The other thing was that the character of the arcs is now quite different. 
>The usual purple arcs are now very nearly orange, with contacting streamer 
>being the normal white.
>
>I guess the question is: IF the cap lost oil, are these symptoms possible?
>I cleaned the spark gap faces, thinking that it may be dirty/oxidized/pitted 
>gap faces, but no change in coil behavior...Any thoughts are appreciated!
>
>
>Thanks!
>
>Chris Walton
>