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Lucas' Reputation - why?

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steveg said:
EV2239,
Rolls Royce also used Delco electrics - do you have any idea what percentage of total production that was?
Click to expand...

Steve

The pre war Wraith and the Post War sixes used Delco Distributors, but they too, seem to be specials and require two different sets of points, the post war cars one Brit and one American. Otherwise it was all Lucas, but special.

I don't know what was on the Springfield built Ghosts and Phantoms, only that their coach built bodies were better quality ones made in the UK.

Ash
 
Living in GB we did not have much of an option back in the 60's and 70's if you bought Austin, Morris, Wolsley, Riley, MG etc. and to be fair, my father had an Austin 8 1947 from new, I had an Austin mini 1960 and later another mini followed by a 100/6 all second hand and none of those cars had any electrical problems of any note. Though I do remember giving a young lady a lift from mid Wales through the Beacons and down to Cardiff in the 1960 mini, when the SU petrol pump decided it wanted a rest. I felt embarrassed as if I contrived the situation to have my evil way ( in broad daylight on a major trunk road ?), but resolutely pressed the starter again and the engine burst into life and we were on our way again within a matter of a few seconds. :cheers: Bob
 
I have always felt Lucas was a gift to the British car enthusiast as it never ceased to provide a story for the “If you think that was bad, let me tell you what happened to me” sessions.

To explain my point, in 1965, while flying down a twisting NE Penn forest reserve road in the middle of a dark night, my 1964 BJ8P1 high beams and driving lights suddenly went dark. Surprised and extremely concerned, I brought the car to the side of this lonely road and reached for my flashlight. Not having a clue what had happened, I was suddenly confronted by a number of springs and odd peaces scattered on the passenger floor. Within a rather short time, I de-installed the rest of the switch from the dash, reassembled the unit, and reinstalled it back into the dash. After connecting the wires and starting the car, I switched on the lights and continued to my destination as though nothing had happened.

Although I have probably addressed an issue or done maintenance on all my Lucas components, I have found extremely few that I could not fix and, except for my original fuel pump that was replaced 30 years ago because of leaking as a result of my cross threading the fuel line into the body, all other original Lucas components and harnesses are still in use and working.

To address the primary issue of moisture and corrosion, I have found that by soldering all bullet ends to their wire, cleaning and redressing all connectors, grounds, and switches, and loading all with dielectric grease (or Vaseline in a pinch), electrical reliability has not been an issue. I must also mention that I have added fuse protection to all circuits, deployed relays and higher wiring gauge sub-harnesses so as not to exceed or stress the original Lucas elements when installing updated components with higher electrical draw (lighting, sound system, etc.).

In my opinion, I feel that Lucas has been a benefit to my Healey and find it hard fault a system that has been in operation for 49 years and, for the most part, ignored for long periods.

Ray (64BJ8P1)
 
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