Originally posted by Big Daddy Kane:
What does this capacitor do?
Is it blocking the ignition system from creating harmful radio waves, or is it blocking harmful radio waves from interfering with the radio system?
It is supposed to block interference to the radio caused by "waves" from the ignition coil. In your case, the ground was attached to the same bolt and leaving the Radio Ignition Interference Capacitor (RIIC) out meant no ground for the ignition coil.
If you look at this diagram from Autozone and the description from Ray's Alternator how-to, the ground and RIIC are supposed to be in two different bolts. So technically, if the ground is on and the RIIC is not on, the car should start. You will just have the radio interference which sounds like a "thud, thud, thud,....".
http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiBroker?ForwardPage=/az/cds/en_us/0900823d/80/1b/c4/02/0900823d801bc402.jsp
"Always do the cheap and easy ones first."
1996 V6 ATX 96K miles
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