Series petrol Ignition issues possible bad condenser

Hello everyone, so for the past few years i seem to have condensers go bad and it is like every few 1000 k's the condenser gets bad and the engine will die when at highway speeds and backfire due to no ignition at the time, now i have replaced the coil and have checked all connections and points and as i say this will happen say every few 1000 k's and then when im at speed it will do it, so i replace the condenser and as soon as i do that back to normal again but what i wanna know is what could cause the condenser to fail??
now i have maybe 6 gauges running off the back of a spare terminal on the key switch, is it possible that im sucking up too much current from the ingition part and causing premature failure, i read when i did a google search a person had a mustang and he was getting over voltage to the ignition and it would kill the condenser, i have a 1963 series 2a with a 3 main bearing petrol engine it has a alternator and is negative earthi have a volt meter fitted in the system somewhere close to the key and it never goes over 12.5 or 12.6v so im sorta stumped as to why the condesners keep on failing and this has been a ongoing issue for a few years now, but since i have been using the lucas taiwan junk condensers it only lasts a few month before i have a failure. i will show you what parts i have in it.
the coil is a bosch gt40 non resistor type i have always run it with one as it had one in it when i got the vehicle back in 2004.

Assuming the consensus are good quality then check the wiring is good and you have a good earth. Double check it's the right condenser as well.
Have you checked the running voltage?

kermit_rr said:

Assuming the consensus are good quality then check the wiring is good and you have a good earth. Double check it's the right condenser as well.
Have you checked the running voltage?

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yes good parts they are for the lucas distributor i have not yet did anything with the wiring from the ignition switch to the fuse and to the coil, ok power off voltage about 11.8v and when running it is 6 to 7 v and thats with the pos and neg on the coil. see it normally does it after several hours like 200hrs or 2000k's or so and the problems occurs and will mainly do it when at speed on the highway it cuts out on and off a lot and then will back fire but then it comes back to life and i carry on at a slow speed like 60kph. i have gone through 3 condensers in the past 3 to 4 years. most times i have days when the engine gets hot but not cooking as its hot weather in australia. but thanks for the tips.

where are you reading 11.8v? engine off should be over 12.6v, with engine running it should be 13.6-14.4v (for an old 16acr alternator)
where are you reading 6-7v? The coil should run at battery voltage

kermit_rr said:

where are you reading 11.8v? engine off should be over 12.6v, with engine running it should be 13.6-14.4v (for an old 16acr alternator)
where are you reading 6-7v? The coil should run at battery voltage

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on the + and - of the coil, first was engine off and second was with it running. its been like this for years, but i have added a few more gauges over the past few years and they run from the back of the spare terminal in the ignition switch i have the early type ignition switch that has the lights switch built in, and the alt is a lucas elektrik turkish made copy

check the voltage at the battery with the engine running at idle and at higher/operating revs, then check the wires/connections from coil/distributor/condenser/earth/battery

kermit_rr said:

check the voltage at the battery with the engine running at idle and at higher/operating revs, then check the wires/connections from coil/distributor/condenser/earth/battery

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yes ok thanks i will have a look at that tomorrow its 7:30pm here.

I also don't have much faith in the modern components as the quality is not what it was back in the good old days.
Luckily I still have a few OE condensers from a friend whose father ran a motor factors a long time ago.
Firstly I would dump the resistor. That tech was ok back in the days of old battery technology and being (insufficiently) charged by dynamos where lower battery voltage under cranking was commonplace.
I suggest the following: go and visit the oldest motor factors in your area, and try to find some old (preferably 80's) condensers from the Nissan 100A or 120Y . These were the old 1.0 and 1.2 litre 4 cylinder engines popular from mid 70's to mid 80's. The condensers used are of a similar physical size and fitting to your Lucas type. The only modification needed is to shorten the coil wire and re-crimp it onto the brass circular connector for the points. Now you'll have a high quality condenser made at a time when quality standards were very high, and Japanese.
Also check if your plugs and leads are both resistor type. It's a common error. You only need one or the other as resistored. Otherwise your coil will have a hard time discharging its high voltage, leading to internal heat build up.
I would stay away from aftermarket electronic ignition as being in Australia, you can end up breaking down a very long way from help. At least points and condensers are serviceable at the roadside, once you have some spares on-board.
Finally, check that you're getting battery voltage at the coil feed terminal during cranking and hot running.

Also, examine the small earthing wire from your baseplate to the distributor body for tight connections and general condition. They don't last forever.

there shouldnt be any ballast resistor on a series

it has no ballast resisitor but my plugs are resistor type plugs i think the leads are ohh yeah they could be resistor or as they stamp on leads here supression type leads, the coil i did replace recently as the older one i had on was giving much different ohm readings to the new one, i have a few of the earth straps from mitsubishi distributor as they seems to be the right length and well made as the old lucas one seemed a little worn out. but so far i have burnt out 2 lucas cheap taiwan made condensers and a third one from a parts supplier, see when it plays up it loses power for some reason and makes the car back fire. and say when it did it i would change the condenser over and all good again no worries, but when it does play up it wont take going up steep inclines on a mountain range very well and want to die out. but since 2017 i have had 4 sets of condensers burn out so there must be a issue somewhere, i have cleaned the carb out just before christmas and had driven iot about 500km's on highway runs before i did the trip that made it backfire and play up. i think by the time it did play up i had close to 1000km's clocked up since carb rebuild. but i noticed that i went through a down pour about 30 mins before the issue arose. now i notice that my cap has burn marks from arcing too what i will do is take pics of all ignition components tomorrow and upload them so you's can see the condition.

thanks for the replies.

Tony Monsantoe said:

it has no ballast resisitor but my plugs are resistor type plugs i think the leads are ohh yeah they could be resistor or as they stamp on leads here supression type leads, the coil i did replace recently as the older one i had on was giving much different ohm readings to the new one, i have a few of the earth straps from mitsubishi distributor as they seems to be the right length and well made as the old lucas one seemed a little worn out. but so far i have burnt out 2 lucas cheap taiwan made condensers and a third one from a parts supplier, see when it plays up it loses power for some reason and makes the car back fire. and say when it did it i would change the condenser over and all good again no worries, but when it does play up it wont take going up steep inclines on a mountain range very well and want to die out. but since 2017 i have had 4 sets of condensers burn out so there must be a issue somewhere, i have cleaned the carb out just before christmas and had driven iot about 500km's on highway runs before i did the trip that made it backfire and play up. i think by the time it did play up i had close to 1000km's clocked up since carb rebuild. but i noticed that i went through a down pour about 30 mins before the issue arose. now i notice that my cap has burn marks from arcing too what i will do is take pics of all ignition components tomorrow and upload them so you's can see the condition.

thanks for the replies.

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Check the plug gaps. If they're too big it can erode the distributor cap pins.

Rangieman123 said:

Check the plug gaps. If they're too big it can erode the distributor cap pins.

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yes ok then.

also i think i have resisitor plugs and resistor leads so that could be my issue as in the past i ran resistor plugs as i had supressed leads and i had a bad condenser.