Bosch Distributor / Condensor

[BeigeAlfa]

(In case we have a language problem here, the condensor is the capacitor that is bolted onto the side of the distributor and goes between the contact breakers and the coil in the low tension side of the ignition circuit)

Soooooo....

I was happily driving down the road last night, thinking how well my alfa was running, when, in an instant, it developed a crippling misfire. I managed to limp it home with a lot af revs and backfiring.

A bit of diagnosis, and it's clear it's misfiring on all four plugs. Everything checks out normal, leaving the condensor as prime suspect.

Now, I always thought you could essentially take the condensor out of the ignition circuit and the car would still run, but with the slight disadvantage that it would destroy the breaker points in short order. It doesn't seem this is the case - no condensor, no sparks. A bit disheartened, I cleaned up the mating surfaces of the condensor and distributor, bolted the thing back on, and, what do you know, misfire gone.

So,

1. I'm just wrong about the removing the condensor, right?
2. Was all this curfuffle caused by a bad earth?
3. Is there a heat-related failure mode with these things?

Cheers!

Dan.