Circuit Breaker Points and Condensers

[Iacovos]

Hello everyone.

Which points and condensers are mostly used nowadays especially with many of them manufactured in the Far East now?

Have not come across this before and now need to change them on my 64 FLH.

Any input is greatly appreciated

THANKS

[dukekleman]

Lacovos,

I use "Standard" brand and/or "Blue streak" series offered were available.
I have recently noticed a running production material change on inventory of the "Blue streak" series point and condenser service kits.

Duke

[Iacovos]

Lacovos,

I use "Standard" brand and/or "Blue streak" series offered were available.
I have recently noticed a running production material change on inventory of the "Blue streak" series point and condenser service kits.

Duke

Thanks Duke

Pulled out mine off the bike and both say Delco Remy Made in USA...so not sure how many years they are in there

Since I am rewiring it is a good opportunity to change both points and condensers

[BigLakeBob]

Napa points CS2350
Condenser RR174, or RR177 (longer wire)
Made in Mexico now.

[Iacovos]

Napa points CS2350
Condenser RR174, or RR177 (longer wire)
Made in Mexico now.

THANKS BigLakeBob

[otis71]

OEM points for Panhead’s can still be found if you look a little. Probably your best bet. I believe HD dealers still have the condensers, if they are obsolete it has not been real long so they should be available too. I guess you need two sets for the dual point set up on a 64.

[chuckthebeatertruck]

At present, there are no contact breaker points manufactured in the USA that I am aware of. Even seeing "made in USA" may not be what you think. There are several loop holes in US trade laws for items like this which allow for components made in say Taiwan to be put together in a free port and labeled as "made in USA" though not a single component is US in origin.

For the "Far East" made sets; the contact material is not the issue. The points themselves wear about the same as anything else I've used over the past 40 years. Instead, the challenge is the rubbing blocks. They often wear at a rate that is way, way more noticeable than points from 40 years ago. This isn't relegated to just "far east" points; I recently had a set of genuine Marelli points supposedly made in the EU with the exact same problem. What happens is that instead of getting 5-6K miles between gap adjustments, you get anywhere between 1000 and 3000 miles between gap adjustments.

I've had the best luck lately with NOS point sets that I bought in bulk from the Dixie/Superior close outs. These are all Taiwan points, but from 30+ years ago and the quality is higher than today. I've had no issues with these points and the set with the highest mileage is at circa 16K and has only been regapped once at circa 9K miles. All the other bikes running these have 3-5K miles on them and have had no maintenance and have created no fuss.

Anyways, the challenges with the point quality is because no HD has used points in more than 40 years and the last vehicles to still have points also phased out between 1985 and 1990. This means that as vehicles aged off the road; demand for daily driver points dried up. Folks weren't buying points for vehicles used 10-15K miles a year and the makers wanted to cut costs on lower demand parts, so lower quality materials made their way into manufacturing. Today, not too many people use their old iron enough to complain about rapid wear -- so there's no reason for manufacturers to improve the product. We therefore now get parts that "work" but don't last nearly as long as their predecessors.

Now, if you want to go hunting NOS, be advised that all 250, and 292 General Motors inline six cylinder motors made between about 1954 and 1980 used a condensor which is a match in capacitance to the HD condensor and just a wee bit physically larger (1/32 or so in diameter and 1/16th or so longer). I have used them in big twin auto timers, ironhead sportster auto times, and manual timers for both big twin and XL sportster. You can get them brand new from the auto store -- but all of them over the counter today are made in Mexico (most common) or Taiwan (less common).

[Peter Cooke]

Someone posted a while back that they'd purchased, and were happy with, one of these.

thorcap.com

[Iacovos]

Thank you for all your detailed replies, based on your experiences!
otis71 correct dual points and condensers for the 64
chuckthebeatertruck completely agree with you. The “made in …” would not had been an issue if all aspects of the components performed like in the past
I am attaching a picture of the condensers i took our from the 64FLH.
Printed on Delco Remy Made in USA
Nostalgic

[DEEBS47Chief1991]

https://forum.antiquemotorcycle.org/bboard/forum/technical-discussions-indian/chief/326940-thor-cap-condenser-conversion

[Iacovos]

https://forum.antiquemotorcycle.org/...ser-conversion

Thank you!! Well structured instructions!

[otis71]

I put a quick start 2000 in my ULH because oem early style points are expensive if they can be found. Haven’t had any problems with it and nothing gets altered. Only visible difference is an extra wire going to the coil. He makes them for dual point timers too.

[Iacovos]

I put a quick start 2000 in my ULH because oem early style points are expensive if they can be found. Haven’t had any problems with it and nothing gets altered. Only visible difference is an extra wire going to the coil. He makes them for dual point timers too.

Thank you otis71

Will have a look

i believe this is the website

https://www.ebeyond2000.net/quickstart.html

[PRG]

Howdy sir,

If converted to two brush and electronic regulator you can dispense with that extra coil wire for a totally stock appearance. Same applies to the generator wiring layout. Click at my link below.

https://petergz.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/Harley-Davidson/My-41FL/i-466wFK5

[otis71]

I replaced the supplied synthetic covered wire with cloth wire and ran them through a single cloth loom making the extra wire almost unnoticeable. In hindsight sight I could have spliced the two wires inside the loom making it completely unnoticeable. Maybe add that to my “to do list”.