I didn't drive the galaxie for a couple days, then went out to run an errand in it yesterday.  It started up and drove like usual until I was about 2 or 3 miles from my house, when I thought I felt a hiccup.  Then, I felt another one, then another, then things went south a bit more aggressively.  The engine would miss randomly and aggressively and somewhat suddenly.

If I turned it off and let it cool down a bit, next time I started it it would operate normally for a while and then start acting up again.  I limped over to a gas station (I was almost out of gas, wanted to be sure that wasn't it) and fuel had no effect.  I wasn't surprised.  I started checking the ignition system out and found just 5.5 volts at the coil, but bypassing the resistor (which gave 10 volts at the coil) produced no change at all in the syptoms.  Since the coil was an original mustard top, I figured it was probably breaking up as it got heat in it, but it was too late to buy a replacement so I left it at the gas station overnight.

This morning I put a new coil on, and it ran nice at first so I took it out and things deteriorated rapidly again.  Same deal.  I also replaced the resistor, just because the old one had about 2 ohms resistance.  No improvement.  I have an engine analyzer tool and used it to check the points.  Sometimes they tested good, sometimes bad, and dwell was high at 30 degrees, so I took the points out to replace but the nearby parts store didn't have them or a condenser so instead I used some 320 grit sandpaper on the point contacts and reinstalled, setting dwell to exactly 28 degrees.  I let it idle a while and get good and hot, but things didn't get too bad, so I took a test drive and there were a couple hiccups but nothing awful, so I ended up driving it back to my house.  It made it okay without any serious threats to dying, but it did miss some, especially under load.  I felt like power was down too.

I should note also that there is some light sediment deposits in the carb fuel bowl, stuff from the tank that got through the filter and settled out.  There isn't much, and it doesn't appear to be affecting things in any way I can detect, but I thought I should mention it.

Also, I watched the engine run with a timing light and the spark would miss when the engine would mess up.  I think there may be too much advance too soon as well, though I hear no spark knock and have been running the car this way for months now.

Does this sound like bad points and/or condenser?  These parts have less than 3000 miles on them...  I don't know how else to account for it.

1954 Crestline Victoria 312 4-bbl, 3-speed overdrive

My vote goes to a condenser problem but I’ll not rule out a bad ground strap within the distributor.  Also the condenser not being firmly tightened down to the breaker plate assy (loose screw or sloppy big bracket) can create some misfiring/dying issues.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

I have a new points set and condenser to install now.  The new condenser appears to be rather poorly soldered to its mounting base.  I'm gonna try to fix that.

Where is the distributor ground strap?

1954 Crestline Victoria 312 4-bbl, 3-speed overdrive

Had similar problem with a 72 LTD 400M. Condenser came unglued from baseplate, brand new with less than 500mi. New overseas stuff not the best.

I'm also experiancing the same problem right now with my truck. But I have a Pertonix set up in mine. I'm going to try to relocate the coil ( on the firewall)  and see if that makes a difference. My air gap (.30) is okay, can't think of what else it might be.

                                                        

Michael

Sandy Valley, NV

On a points distributor - and the Pertronix outfit is just subsituting a transistor for the points - the closed circuit has to ground the coil to charge it.

There is a little braided grounding strap that makes sure the ground carries from the pivoting point plate to the distributor body - and then you "trust" that the distributor body has a good ground to the block. If possible - it is best that the pivoting plate has a ground wire that simply goes clear out to the engine block. 

Any resistance that gets into the completed circuit - power to the coil, coil to the "switch" (points or Pertronix), switch to engine ground - changes the output of the coil discharge. 

 
 Steve Metzger       Tucson, Arizona

I replaced the condensor and that fixed it!  Thanks everyone!

1954 Crestline Victoria 312 4-bbl, 3-speed overdrive

Thanks for you explaination Steve hopefully I'll get some time to check a few things on my truck you mentioned.

                  

Michael

Sandy Valley, NV