Points Set

[oldtime]

All I know for sure is that the condenser is specifically used to prevent arcing at the points whenever the points open. That said I don’t even understand why the points arc when you manually open them.
If you attached two condensers in parallel it seems to me that would serve to double the total capacitance and there by the total capacitance would be outta spec.
Anyone else know ?

[Slimpickins]

I am a little late to the party, but I had the same issue and converted to electronic ignition. Now I am not suggesting you do that, but something interesting I recently come across is I have an original 1937 Chevrolet. It is still six volt and it does not burn up points, so I went back to my jeep ballast resistor and was getting 8.5 volts. I believe that was my issue and had I been thoughtful enough then, I would have tried something different and retained the points.

I believe there are three typical issues with the modern points parts. 1. Ballast resistors do not sufficiently reduce voltage. 2. The points wear block is to soft, wears to quickly, allowing the points to close up. 3. Condensers do not sufficiently buffer the voltage spikes.

I would look for new old stock points parts and check the ballast resistor, or get a Ron Francis voltage reducer and supply a straight six volts to the ignition.       

[oldtime]

Yes if your coil does not internally reduce to sufficiently low enough voltage via resistance readings then you need an external ballast. Ballast can vary quiet a bit because they were often designed for specific ignition systems. So if you run a ballast you also need to test to make sure it will reduce voltage to about 8 of 9 max.
I suspect that’s the idea behind the 8 volt batteries you here of.
Somewhere around 8 or 9 the max voltage that will produce the hottest spark without burning up the points.

[Spacecrab]

Right I'll have a look into that!

Does it wire before or after the coil?

[scoutpilot]

Before.