The Hodaka Club Forum

Just wondering if it takes some soldering to replace condenser and points on an ace 100? Never replaced these parts before and I have a kit ready to install. Just looking for any advice to help me be successful with the tune up.

Thanks,
Ryan

There are many great threads on this forum discussing this very topic. Try searching for "condenser wiring" and "soldering to the condenser - a better way". There is no soldering involving the breaker points, but some craftsman-like soldering is required to replace the condenser. The things to consider are to have all the wires secured together by tinning before the attachment procedure to limit the heat exposure to the condenser and to insure no wire or solder contacts the condenser barrel lest the ignition will not function. Check out those, and many more, threads on this forum for many tips and tricks to make the process easier and successful.

I found soldering to the condenser to be difficult.

I'd consider replacing and setting the points & go with what you have. Falls into if it's not broken don't fix it category.

But if you have reason to suspect the capacitor you may want to take action.

There was, I think, a discussion on this forum about placing the condenser on the coil under the tank.

If you web search replacement coils for vintage bikes I think you will find some coils that have the condenser attached and wired in. Hondas of some vintage or model I think.


I thought I'd smoked the solder in condenser on my ace when I tried replacing it. Really got hot trying to connect all those wires to that little condenser contact.

So I ADDED a auto parts store condenser to the circuit at the coil. Kind of a belt and suspenders approach.

Just me, but I'd be disinclined to try the solder in again. Yes, there's two condensers on my bike.

Runs faster than I'll go.

I referenced The circuit diagram in the shop manual for the under tank hook up.

Al Harpster

You can always test the condenser before replacing it, but it has to be removed from contact with all other parts. Just verify all the leads from the condenser are disconnected from other parts. You will need a multi-tester that reads in farads. If it is good, you can opt to bypass the replacement at this time and keep the new condenser against future need.

I never found it all that hard to solder in a new one. As far as mounting one remotely, I have no problem with that. It gets the condenser out of a hot environment with no air circulation into a cool environment with flowing air. All good for electronic pieces.

So if I was to mount it up at the coil under the tank, I would have to unsolder the old condenser wires and run them up to the new one? Or how does that work? I'm interested in how this works. I'm such a newbie. I appoligize in advance for any questions that sound dumb.

If the condenser tests okay, you could clipmthe wires running to the solder tab so that when it is time to reconnect things,the soldering would be done on the wire stubs, not on the condenser. But yes, the idea is to put the condenser up out of harms way, then run simple wire to wherever the condenser is.

To mount the condenser under that tank (or where ever you want remotely) you have to do the following.
1. The wires going to the old condenser need to be removed.
2. The wire from the primary exciting coil needs to be connected to the points.
3. Take the black wire that goes to the coil under the tank and attached the free end (that was removed from the condenser) to the points.
4. (optional) If you are using the ignition switch, run the free end (that was removed from the condenser) of the black wire that goes to the ignition switch and attach to the points also.
5. To make steps 2, 3 and 4 easier, group the wires taken off the condenser together and from them run one wire to the points. Make sure they are securely attached to each other (they don't need to be taken apart any more) and insulated from ground.
6. You can now attach the new condenser anywhere you want as long as it is connected to the black wire going to the coil under the tank and the condensers case is grounded well.

I connected the wire from the contact of the cap to the BLACK wire contact of the under tank coil. I then fastened the cap body to the coil's mounting bolt. I cleaned off the frame to coil mounting surface to assure contact with 'ground'.

I left the under flywheel cap in place.

Not saying this is the way to go. Maybe it isn't. My bike runs fine.

I felt soldering in those three short unforgiving wires to a new cap under the flywheel quite troublesome. My days of soldering goes back to the days of the Knight Kits and Heath Kits. I'm certainly no expert, but I've done it for years.

Replacing a cap as a routine is the way we used to tune up cars in the old days. But those were easy. And I'd guess all of the ones I replaced were just fine.

My two cents...... unless you have an ignition problem that can be associated with the cap leave it alone and put the new one in your toolbox for future reference.

If you want to try it, take a look at the posts with helpful how to suggestions on this forum.

Al Harpster

for reference --- "cap" = capacitor = condenser

Thanks, Capt.: always good information from you.

Old timers memory, if the points are burning, pitting it could be a bad condenser, If you loose spark when the engine gets warmed up it could be the condenser, old rule of thumb. If you have a very good spark, the condenser is working. How many miles can you put on a ace 100 without a rebuild?------------Clarence

On old new-to-me vehicles points and condenser get replaced early-on. Unless they look very new.