The Hodaka Club Forum

The recent posts on soldering in a new condenser brings the questions. Is it logical, feasible and at what advantage to install the condenser near the coil, under the tank? How would you do this?

Makes sense, you need a single wire condenser, and a place to mount it, usually on the coil mount bolt. Tie in to the wire coming up from the points and you should be good to go. Gets it out in the air for better cooling.

Way back in the dark ages before there were Super Rats, we built our own race bikes out of Ace 90s. A company named Webco made a kit to up date 90 ignition systems to the newer Ace 100 style. The kit moved the secondary coil and the condenser under the tank. Several years ago I did the same thing on my Ace 90 desert bike. I installed a terminal block under the flywheel where the condenser originally went. I connected the primary coil wire, and the point wire to the block. I ran a wire up the frame tube to the condenser. I used a Mallory condenser like the original Webco kit. The Mallory has a stud instead of a wire so all connections use eyes. Makes for good connections all around. Mounted the condenser to the horn bracket ahead of the coil. The kill button wire also attaches to the stud. I ran a ground wire from the condenser bracket to the magneto frame just to be sure I had a good ground (probably not necessary). This will work with any condenser you want to use either wire type or stud. Mallory condensers are still available on EBay but they are not cheap.

I'm unsure of the advantage of mounting the condenser under the tank. Sure it keeps it cooler and makes it easier to change, but it exposes it to dirt and water and may reduce it's effectiveness (something that will require a bit of analysis) due to the added resistance and inductance of the longer wiring.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2186&p=16003#p16003
This link should help.

Danny, just the information I was looking for. Nice work.

https://sep.yimg.com/ay/dratv/tec-ignit ... 50-s-2.gif

If this link above will work it'll show a condenser mounted with the coil. Not saying you should buy this, just that this is an example.

I have a setup like this on my ace.

I do not run a special wire from the flywheel to the coil mounted condenser.

As I recall I attached the condenser body to the ignition coils laminated frame and soldered the condenser wire to the black wire contact on the coil itself.

Take a look at the Ace ignition wiring diagram, or the older super rat ignition diagram. I think this is "right".

I can post the diagram if you don't have it.

Mallory Condensers are available at Summit Racing. I bought the model 400 (cheapest at $7.75) and it has been working great for several years now.

https://www.summitracing.com/search/dep ... 6%2B400249