VL Points and Condenser ???

[leomags]

Is there a secret here that requires my knowing the password? I'm looking in the my VL "book of knowledge" and it states that I should replace the circuit breaker points and condenser if I can find them. What is them, and if them is not available what can be substituted?

[Lippy]

VL points and condenser are under the oil pump cover. That's down by the rear break lever. Remove the cover, two or three screws depending on VL year, and under there is a circular cover that contains the points and condenser. If you look at the picture that I posted under 'Early VL Oil Pump' you can see that cover on the left side of that picture.

Lippy

[leomags]

Lippy, thank you for your input. I'm also looking for specific Harley or replacement part numbers......

[diesel55]

points

try original hd parts.the repos points are not formed correct and will ruin insulatd stud.the old ones usually will work if filed right. if you have no points i have n.o.s.ones35.00

[leomags]

Thank you diesel55, I may take you up on that. But P-l-e-a-s-e someone......the part numbers..........???

[Sargehere]

Thank you diesel55, I may take you up on that. But P-l-e-a-s-e someone......the part numbers..........???

"32658-30. Set of Breaker Points..... --1930-1948 All Twins." The points set was unchanged, all VLs through the end of the Knucklehead/UL era in 1948. Was also numbered, before the 1951 parts renumbering scheme, 1569-30A. Condenser was 1629-30A. Became 32726-30. Made today in half-fast Chinese repop, but some OEM original parts are still available, if you search.

Harley Parts catalogs are wonderful things. They're "all" reprinted. But before WWII the photos are out-of-scale & incomplete, but post WWII, the books are full of scale, blow-up drawings, which is where I found the 1930-1948 points sets and condensers.

[leomags]

Thank you.

[Rubone]

That stuff is available all the time on eBay as military surplus. All WLAs used them.

[Steve Slocombe]

Sometimes the nos military points sets do not include the spring, because you were expected to re-use it. Note also from the recent AMCA magazine article that condenser insulation breaks down over 40 years, so maybe the nos ones are not as good as we thought.

[leomags]

Were points and condensers only made for this application by Harley or were there other domestic manufacturers like Echlin, NAPA or Blue Streak which made replacements too?

[hmccorkl]

I notice that the repop point set is suspect. I put in a 32658-30 set and noticed an additional gap of about .043, so I put the old 1569-30A points back in. I'm still looking for a 1569-30A set

points-1569-30A.jpgpoints-32658-30.jpg

[Steve Slocombe]

The points gap is adjustable by loosening the two screws you can see in the picture just above the points. Set the points gap to 0.022" fully open before going on to set the ignition timing.