Better, yes. In my opinion anyway.

Easier to fit, no. But no worse really.

The lummy still relies on the mechanical advance. I understand the 123 doesn't. Therefore, if the issue lies with the advance mechanism a lummy will not solve it

To my annoyance, after driving really nicely for about 50 miles or so, the same thing has started happening again.

I can only think of fitting those new (Valeo) points and condenser, and trying another coil.

It was quite spectacular driving down the High Street in New Romney, banging away like the Lone Ranger and crawling to sudden and unexpected halts. Then it pulled itself together and got me back to St Mary's Bay......

Dennis,
maybe check the charging voltage, using a multimeter?
If it's high (above 14.4 volts), capacitors/condensers will have a shorter life...

Ken, no matter about charging with ignition capasitors, there is usually some hundred volts on ignition primar circuit, because of coil flyback...

New capasitors are just crap. Same issues with old motorcycles, some capasitors are dead before installing, some may last few thousand kilometers, old ones what are changed "at their change schedule", they work much better than new ones...



Some reasons for that is they aren't so common anymore, less manufacturers, "no need reliability" like when daily driven cars had points/capasitor etc. And when they are made less, the price usually rises, but because of no-one want to pay more of them (because they were cheap at old days) somehow the price must to get lower and it is easiest by quality...

Theres almost no point in fitting your valeo condensor itll just fail if its not already dud

Anything that does away with the condensor is a good thing £10 maplins job £20 gammatronix on fleabay £50Boyer unit £100+ for 123 and lummi and then theres the programmable stuff... take yer pick!

And one solution if capasitor get broken at tour. Just buy some potatoes, stick one potato to anywhere metal (screw, heat exchanger etc) and stick also a wire on the other side of potato. The other end of wire goes to points, and that potato acts like capasitor for some time, and when it changes its color to green, it doesn't work anymore and it is time to put a new potato...

Yes, I know, it sounds weird, but it is tested many times and it really gets you back to home... Most of times, some potatos doesn't work...

Jasu,
but isn't that flyback voltage proportional to the applied voltage in the primary circuit?
I had a problem years ago with a customer who'd installed a replacement voltage regulator on his Dyane, but failed to make a good earth connection.
The resulting 18 volt charge rate killed off a couple of capacitors in no time and that was back in those days when capacitors actually did what it said on the box...

Ken - excessive charging could be the problem.

With the engine off, the battery shows 13.8v. Running, the charge at the battery terminals is 15.6v. There's some fluctuation to that figure but not much. Of course, the voltmeter might be suspect too.

I did have a couple of old voltage regulators and they both produced very similar figures.

Is one of the regulator wires an earth, then? If so I'll have a go at cleaning it up a bit.

Maybe it's time for (a) a new regulator (the current one has three exposed resistances underneath, and may be the original one as fitted when new) and (b) that electronic ignition which I thought I'd already fitted......

For what it's worth, I also found modern condensers to be pretty rubbish. I measured the capacitance of a few I had lying around, which ranged from 200-500nF. I replaced the original with the biggest ugliest capacitor I could find, a PET film capacitor, something like this and it worked fine. I only ran it for a year like that, so can't comment on the long term longevity, but given one of the standard replacement condensers didn't make it 5 miles I was happy with my capacitor.

Having said that, I would agree with Sean, there are lots of alternative available, my van is running hugely better on 1-2-spark for the last 20,000 miles or so

Dennis, if several regulators are giving the same results, it's most likely a poor connection in the wiring at some point. Corroded terminals have a higher resistance, so the voltage the regulator actually sees is lower than the battery voltage, leading to overcharging. Giving all the connections a clean with some emery cloth or similar might well restore order.