68 Dream CA77 won't run

[Geoff Hastings]

For those that are not familiar with testing a capacitor/ condenser you need a specific meter for that. A lot of the better digital multimeters have a capacitance tester or you can buy a purely capacitance meter. Look for the uf symbol on the dial. You should discharge the capacitor before testing, ideally using a resistor across the leads or lead and body but I’ve just shorted the leads together with no ill effect.

[Michael Stoic]

Here is one example of the meter Geoff is describing.

Many uses: In the garage - from ignition capacitors to start capacitors (for your air compressor, for example). You can also get high praise upstairs for fixing the washing machine.

[Geoff Hastings]

Sorry Michael, but what you showed is micro amps ( uA ) not micro farrad (uf) sorry my keyboard doesn’t have a proper micro symbol. I did photograph my meter but couldn’t reduce the size to an acceptable size.

[Michael Stoic]

Geoff, you're right, in that picture the meter is on micro amps.

Posting the correct configuration here - with the meter on farrads. Sorry for the confusion folks.

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[guzziart]

Short story sort of related to the Subject. I had 3 multi meters, none had a cap test function, I made that discovery when our air conditioner failed to work a few summers ago. So, to maybe save myself an expensive service call, I ran over to Home Depot and bought another multi meter, for $70, that had a capacitor test function. Sure enough, the a/c capacitor was the culprit. I then went to the local hvac joint and bought a new cap for $8, problem solved. Since then, when I perform routine maintenance on my old stuff (points/timing/valve clearance, etc.) I run a cap test. So far I've found one bad condenser....it worked but was out of specification.

On another note, I'm in the process of rebuilding the engine on a '66 305 Dream that I bought in October. I'm glad to see that some people are periodically posting on the forum.

Art