Misfires and eventual brekdown of condensator and contacts

[pmansson]

My 3.8 has had an alternator for years.
I have had sporadic misfires for some time, but on a high speed, continuous 350 mile drive, it got worse and worse. The car eventually "broke down".
The Bosch workshop changed the condensator and contact breakers, saying the condensator was bust and had in turn caused the premature failure of the contact breakers. Both were less than 1000 miles old.
(the sporadic misfires came after a few hundred miles, usually on acceleration but sometimes on easy motorway cruising):

What might be at fault....?

[1954Etype]

My 3.8 has had an alternator for years.
I have had sporadic misfires for some time, but on a high speed, continuous 350 mile drive, it got worse and worse. The car eventually "broke down".
The Bosch workshop changed the condensator and contact breakers, saying the condensator was bust and had in turn caused the premature failure of the contact breakers. Both were less than 1000 miles old.
(the sporadic misfires came after a few hundred miles, usually on acceleration but sometimes on easy motorway cruising):

What might be at fault....?

Still using points and condensor would be my bet! Seriously, don't know but would recommend you fit electronic ignition or even better, a 123 distributor.

[Heuer]

Agree with Angus - points are not worth messing about with but I am not convinced about the 123 dizzy. Seems great in theory but messing about with the curves means taking it out of the car and there is still some disagreement as to which curve best suits the E-Type. This one does the job and is a third of the price: http://tinyurl.com/28r39eh No adjustment but the curve is the mechanical one specified by Jaguar/Lucas.

[1954Etype]

Agree with Angus - points are not worth messing about with but I am not convinced about the 123 dizzy. Seems great in theory but messing about with the curves means taking it out of the car and there is still some disagreement as to which curve best suits the E-Type. This one does the job and is a third of the price: http://tinyurl.com/28r39eh No adjustment but the curve is the mechanical one specified by Jaguar/Lucas.

David, the 123 is a pain but I understand Dave R has just bought the new 123/tune which means you can set the curves up via a laptop without taking it out of the car. Over to you Dave!

[pmansson]

The car had a Lumenition system, with its appropriate coil installed in 2006. A Jaguar "specialist" in Switzerland wanted to remove it as it was all of a sudden inoperative. He couldn?t start the car. I said OK to this over the phone. He then took out the Lumention parts and installed the contact breakers and condensator. BUT he left the more powerful coil in place, which casued the gradual breakdown.....(he also tried to install a new windscreen which not only leaked water at the top part of the seal, but broke in two (one of two layers) within 2 days of the pickup of the car. So much for a specialist!! I will share his name and location on a PM basis if anybody in CH had planned to use him).