Geek Caps - Ratings and longevity

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Original poster: "Chris Roberts by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <quezacotl_14000000000000-at-yahoo-dot-com>

Hi guys,
It's been about 5 months since I have gotten my 6 inch coil working, and up 
until now it has been running perfectly. About a week ago though, the coil 
started acting strange. It only makes sparks about half as big as they 
should be and it makes a strange hissing noise while running. I checked the 
NST and it still works perfectly. I also looked at the spark gap but 
nothing seemed out of the ordinary there either. I double checked the 
connections everywhere and they were fine also. So I now have to be 
suspicious of my MMC again. This time at least, they didn't blow up 
immediately so I know I'm doing at least someting right. =D
The MMC is 2 strings of 6 geek caps, giving it a value of .5ufd and a 12000 
volt rating. My transformer is a 9kV 120ma NST, so it should be fine with 
the RMS voltage. However, the peak voltage on the transformer is somewhere 
around 12500 right? I know that these caps are made to tolerate quite above 
their ratings, but over time could they eventually break down from 
repeatedly running them above their ratings? The outer tape covering the 
caps are now severly wrinkled and covered with dents, which may be where 
they were blasted through. Either that, or something else is wrong and the 
tape may just be wrinkled. Terry, would you mind doing another MMC 
inspection to see if these things still work?


-Chris

"