Maybe some of us are just unlucky. The only new British car I ever had was
a Series II. I would not rate the quality of the electrical components very
high. I put only 46,000 miles on the car. Some the items that were
replaced/rebuilt included 2 overdrive relays, finally stuck a relay for a
Rambler on it, that lasted. Generator brushes lasted only 30,000 miles, a
starter that did not work 10% of the time without whacking it with the
starting handle ( much more fun than using it to crank the car) and most of
the light bulbs (don't know who made them, but they sure didn't last), and
the distributor rotor cracked and shorted out the high tension spark. Those
are the items that I recall after 35 years. I am sure there were more.
I don't know anything about electrical circuitry, but one time the car died
in the middle of no place. Just spang shut off. Found out the battery
cable came off. Stuck it back on, it started up and ran fine. To me, that
is weird, as I have started cars with dead batteries by putting a good
battery in, started the car, taken the battery out and put the old battery
back in without the car dying. I don't recommend this, but it will work if
there are no jumper cables available.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Yang" <TYang@compuserve.com>
To: "John Slade" <edalsj@igs.net>
Cc: "[unknown]" <alpines@autox.team.net>
Sent: Friday, February 16, 2001 11:57 PM
Subject: Re: Electrical ?
> 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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