John,
I too have never been let down by Lucas electrics, but sometimes their
logic baffles me. I am not an electrical engineer, so there might a reason
for their design but I have never understood it. I am currently restoring a
Ferrari which uses a Lucas windshield wiper motor. It's wired so the
positive lead goes from the fuse panel through the motor back to the switch
where it gets its ground to complete the circuit. The problem with this
logic is that if something else shorts this path the wiper will turn on!
I've also found out that the wiper motor gets hot because even when it's
not in use a small amount of voltage is making ground through the chassis
of the motor! What were they thinking?
Tom
Alpine MkV
Ferrari 330 America
Message text written by John Slade
>
I have replied separately to Pete S, but must put in my dissenting remarks
about Lucas electrics. I have owned British cars since 1960, and have yet
to
be let down by the Prince of Darkness, despite the reputation, and the many
stories told by others. I suppose it does help to be an electrical engineer
by
profession, but other than for basic routine maintenance to electrical
components, I don't spend extra time on electrics. It does help, however,
to
understand the logic of electricity, which seems to escape some otherwise
very
bright people.
I have bought several cars which had electrical problems, in some cases
stated
by the previous owners, and most of the time have found out that a previous
owner or maintainer had "modified" the wiring in some way. In one case I
removed the complete harness, opened it up to remove and replace the
various
hacked and modified/missing wiring, and replaced it to find that everything
worked correctly again. Jon's complaint about the dash light switch is
typical. In a correctly wired car, with the correct switches, what he says
he
has never been able to do is a standard feature. Of course you can put on
the
dash lights (and the parking lights) without putting on the headlights,
that
is what the centre position of the lighting switch is for. In another car I
found that a PO had done some work on behind the dash components, but had
reconnected various wires incorrectly, with the result that some functions
no
longer worked. I am occasionally asked to help a friend (any brand car)
sort
out some electrical problem or other, and am amazed at how frequently I
find
an absolute horror story of hacked and or dangerous wiring.
I firmly believe that most of the "difficult to resolve" electrical
problems
we encounter with our Lucas equipped cars are the result of modifications
of
one sort or another done by previous keen but not electrically savvy owners
(and occasionally garage help). Lucas design philosophy was consistently
conservative, but in keeping with most other manufacturers of the time. We
all know they provided the minimum number of fuses they could get away
with,
and which by todays standards we consider to be inadequate. Nonetheless,
with
a minimum of maintenance, we can ensure that these old systems conrtinue to
operate as they were designed to do. There are lots of problems caused by
component failure in older cars, but that is where more serious routine
maintenance comes in.
Just my 2 cents<
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