How to test a condenser Ian Ailes was in touch recently saying "following a number of failures recently, here are two simple ways to test a condenser off your car. A faulty one will cause the engine to run very poorly or not at all. There have been plenty of poor ones on the market recently, so best to test it before fitting a new one. Well worth buying a spare to keep in the car". See a full copy of this note. Link Posted: 250809 How to test a condenser Ian Ailes provides a useful guide to testing a condenser. Usually a condenser is changed at the same time as the contact breaker points but here is a test to see if it's faulty or not. Engines will not run well without a good condenser, as a poor condenser can cause a misfire and burning of the points. Using a digital multimeter to start the test, earth the condenser on its body to discharge it. Then set the meter to 20M in the Ohms section of the meter. Connect the probes to the body and tail - they are not polar sensitive. If it is good, the meter reading will rise up then stop at 1. Using an analogue (dial) multimeter I set the meter to 20K in the Ohms section of the meter, then connect the probes to the body and tail. They are not polar sensitive. If it is good, the meter needle will rise briefly very slightly then return to zero. Ian says "if anyone wants to learn more about capacitors, have a look at the article in John James' TTT2 website Issue 31, August 2015." Link Replacement condensers are available from Moss and Brown & Gammons. Further information Bob Owen provides some background technical information that expands on the basic note, but not so far as the linked TTT2 article and a little more directly related, which could be useful for those interested. Link