I am sure everyone has heard the story of the unfortunate
individual who one day found that his car had a "gulp valve", at
which point the above mentioned part ceased to function.
Well, my TR doesn't have a gulp valve (if it does, you can
keep it to yourself), but I have discovered a closely related
"Law of Lucas", which has even wider implications. That is,
even if you are *reminded* of some functionality on your LBC,
it will instantly fail.
This came about when Chris Kent innocently asked me about
the ability to flash the main beams by pulling back on the
(column-mounted) light switch. This very useful, particularly
for flashing the occasional "fog-light bonehead" that comes
along, since when the low-beams are on, pulling the stalk will
activate the mains without turning off the lows.
Well, being a helpful sort of fellow, I set off to see which wires
are involved in making this particular magic happen. However,
when I got to looking, my main beams where no longer functional.
It seems that the adaptor for an after-market steering wheel has been
slowly eating away at the innards of the steering column, first the
horn ring, and now the light switch.
I managed to saw off the offending casting, and set about to
investigate a new switch. Thumbing through my 1987 restoration
checklist, I find that the switch is about $20, not too bad for
a "genuine Lucas" part. This bring up another corollary to the
Scott Fischer rules, that is, "when it ain't broke, you can afford
it, when it is broke, you can't". I say this because the switch is now
listed at $50 in the 1990 price sheet.
Long live Uncle Joe!
--
Darrell Walker walker@hprpcd.hp.com
(916) 785-4059 HPDesk: walker (hprpcd) /HP5200/UX
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