DYNA III ignition: why a 'F' in the timing hole at idle?

[Rohls]

Success! She's a runner once again. Thanks for all the help! The best I can figure it was a faulty condenser...I know this is rare, but after yelling, poking and diagnosing it's the best I could come up with.

[PITAPan]

Success! She's a runner once again. Thanks for all the help! The best I can figure it was a faulty condenser...I know this is rare, but after yelling, poking and diagnosing it's the best I could come up with.

Swap the old one back in to confirm. Maybe it was connectivity?

I recall the drill was to always replace the condenser with the points. This was on Bosch 009 distributors (that condenser is matched for you BTW, any standard air cooled VW). Failure was rare because they never got old enough to fail.

If stretching it for economy, I would always keep a new spare handy.

[Duane Ausherman]

Electronically, there is no such thing as matching the condenser with the points. That was a sales gimmick and it worked. The condenser is matched to the coil in a parallel tuned circuit of very low Q.