Originally Posted by
LarrBeard
The case of the condenser is the other electrical contact. The clamp needs to be in very intimate contact with the case to make sure that the case of the condenser is connected to ground - the case of the distributor. Mine was just slipping around loosely and when it lost contact, the truck would almost run. It acted like a carburetor/fuel problem for a month, the it cleared up and ran - for a while.
Then we threw up our hands and went to find a really old guy. We told him the symptoms and he said "Bad condenser". We said "But, it is a brand new distributor with all new parts."
He replied; "Do you want to argue or so you want the da#$ed thing to run?"
We quit arguing, replaced the condenser (obviously the problem) and it has run ever since.
Score one for the really old guy!