Timeline for How does a distributor condenser prevent contact burning?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
9 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jul 7, 2021 at 6:49 | history | protected | CommunityBot | ||
| Jan 18, 2020 at 23:01 | vote | accept | Dan Z | ||
| Jan 12, 2020 at 4:51 | history | edited | Dan Z | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 68 characters in body
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| Jan 12, 2020 at 4:44 | comment | added | Dan Z | I think I'll post this question in physics. Where does the ignition coil get its input voltage cycle from? And is it ac or dc? I assume the cap stabilizes the voltage, but arcing is caused by high voltage difference. Actually I get I now I think.----- the capacitor reduces the voltage difference across the distributor, but doesn't do anything about the voltage change across the spark plug gap. The capacitor stores charge, and keeps the voltage after the distributor High. | |
| Jan 9, 2020 at 7:46 | comment | added | HandyHowie | @alephzero I believe that your comment isn't quite correct (but correct me if I am wrong). I believe that the capacitor continues to allow current into the coil after the points have opened, so delaying the collapse of the magnetic field sufficiently to protect the points.(see my answer) | |
| Jan 8, 2020 at 10:30 | answer | added | HandyHowie | timeline score: 4 | |
| Jan 8, 2020 at 9:38 | comment | added | alephzero | It's not clear how much detail you want (and a full answer might be "study an AC circuits course in an electrical engineering degree") but in simple terms, when you suddenly switch off a coil the energy stored in its magnetic field has to go somewhere, it tries to produce a pulse of current to get rid of it. But the current can't flow in the wires of circuit because you just broke the circuit! So it jumps a gap and creates a spark, The purpose of the capacitor is the absorb the current without the spark in the low-tension circuit, and protecting the points from being burned. | |
| Jan 8, 2020 at 9:37 | answer | added | Solar Mike | timeline score: 0 | |
| Jan 8, 2020 at 9:25 | history | asked | Dan Z | CC BY-SA 4.0 |