Condensor, starting issues

[Elack]

I have a 68 Ford F250 CS 360 V8. My plugs, wires, starter, solenoid, battery cables, starter cables, ground cables, cap rotor, and condenser are new as well as fuel line and canister and inline filter. Carb is freshly rebuilt. I wasn't getting spark at the block, but i was getting spark at the points. Finally, when i installed the condenser it started right up and ran well. The next time i try to start it, it wouldn't start; maybe not sparking? Either there is an inline resistor that is killing my condenser, or am i having intermittent starting problems do to a bad distributor. Couldn't find the resistor labeled on the wiring diagram, but heard talk of a Ballast resistor, maybe this could be killing condenser. I'll probably spend the 3.99 for another condenser and see if it starts up again and then kills another condenser or if it is just a random problem, like bad distributor.

[fordman]

these trucks did not come from the factory witha resistor. check the ground for your condensor. it has to be good and clean to get spark.

[Elack]

thanks fordman, i'll give that a try. what about a ballast resistor, or is that not related to my condenser?

[willowbilly3]

The wire from the switch is the resistor.
Do you have a test light? Put it on the coil + with the switch on and make sure you have power, now the same with the engine cranking. Put it on the coil neg (the one to the dist) while cranking and see if it blinks on and off.
You might try a temporary jumper wire from the battery + to the coil + and see what happens. Don't leave it on too long, hard on points.

[Thunderfoot]

An in line resistor wont kill the condenser it is just a capacitor to help reduce the spark at the points (to make the points last longer). All trucks have a resistive ignition wire which also drops the voltage to the points to help make them live longer...

I would suspect the distributor wire from the (-) side of the coil to the distributor is bad or you have the point wire inside shorting out to the plate. Or the ignition switch or wire is bad.

One other thing to try is to unplug the (Brown) wire from the small terminal on the starter solenoid and see it that helps or not. Have seen bad (new) starter solenoids that can cause this problem...