I'll get onto it soon. Two jobs leaves so little time for my car babies. Boo.

I've ordered one of those little spark testers that Ken posted. What a great little useful thing.

A little enforced learning about how to do the points will do me good in sure.....

That tester arrived today. So quick!

My froglet rides again. And beautifully too so far. (To my friends house tonight.)

I tried fresh fuel, checked hoses, popped the top of the carb off to check it, and then replaced the condensor - which was indeed the problem.

Thanks as always for advice, good to have you guys around.

Ha, reading this thread again made me realise that tester is sitting in my car and I had completely forgotten about it.

Anyway, my condensor failed again. I broke down twice on the way to a work thing, but still got there, and completely on the way back. Necessitating a tow from a loony but helpful young workmate who has a monster wheeled Hi-Lux truck. A ride of pure terror and hot brakes let me tell you.. Car idled beautifully as before.

Anyway condensor ordered and fitted this morning and back to normal. How rubbish they have such an unpredictable potentially short life now. I'm just lucky I was local as its more of a long journey car really.

I'm loath to change to electronic ignition because it runs so beautifully already and has done fine for 23 years or so with me on points. And won't the electronic ignition have problems of its own? It seems cheap componentry is affected everything across the board now, even stuff like toasters etc.

The 123Ignition fitted to my Deuche has been in place for at least 15 years (and well in excess of 150k miles - car recently reached 270k miles, with 200k of that being done by myself since buying the car in April 2002). I decided to go electronic due to a condensor repeatedly failing during a Raid Tan Hill, and ending up stranding me on the M6 in the Lake District on a dark, cold, wet winter's night. The 123 has never let me down (yet )

Broken condensator can be replaced (temporarly) with a potato smashed into position between the engine and ignition box.....This tip came from the finnish 2cv guild.

Ian,
on any A series I've worked on which was still using the original ignition setup, I ended up always mounting the capacitor close to the coil, rather than on the points box.
In fact, a 'spare' capacitor was usually mounted next to the one which was in service, allowing a quick swap if the original one ever started to play up...

Gentlemen, just the kind of feedback I was looking for, thank you.

The potato thing too, I may just have to try that one day out of interest...

I that about the potato, but be careful, as they chip easily!

And yes lot's of modern condesators are rubbish. I have an 1960s one in the 57 2cv since 30 years never changed it. No problems.
Maybe buing an condensator at an electronics shop and weld an wire on it. Should work.