electrical and ignition Capacitor On Coil?

['76mintgrün'02]

I recently took my new Bosch "black" coil off and put the old one back on. I had replaced it when I did my initial tune-up, after buying the car. I prefer the look of the old one and the fact that it says "made in Germany" on it. It seems to work just fine, so why not? The question I have is, what is this little capacitor for? Was it added to extend the life of the points?

(I ran a Pertronix for a bit, but am currently using points FWIW) Tom

[HBChris]

Yes, it is bypassed during engine cranking to send full power to coil by a relay. Otherwise it will shorten the life of your points if it is removed. It should be 1.1 ohms. Never used it with a blue coil. If you replace your black coil with a red or silver one the label will say use a 1.8 ohm resistor otherwise the coil will overheat. This has happened to me.

[TobyB]

That's random.  It won't really do anything, 'cause it's tiny.  As in, nanofarads... 

 

A PO addition, for sure.

 

t

['76mintgrün'02]

Thank you Toby, it seemed sort of randumb, but thought I would ask. 

 

HBChris, my car has the resistance wire in place of the ballast resistor, which I bypassed to run the Pertronix unit.  Back on the old wire now and running points.  I am pretty sure this little lentil is unrelated, but thank you for your input.   

[HBChris]

Heck, I didn't even see that little capacitor!

[hchueh]

Strange, can only imagine that this is an attempt to absorb voltage spikes, similar to what the condensor does with points. Maybe it was there with a different kind of ignition trigger and that was the goal?

[FunkyLaneO]

possibly an attempt to reduce noise on the radio?