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- Path: sparky!uunet!ogicse!psgrain!hippo!ba16.ru.ac.za!bakc
- From: bakc@giraffe.ru.ac.za (MR KR COMAN)
- Newsgroups: rec.autos.tech
- Subject: Re: (Lucas electrics) Re: '57 TR3 no engine go jap?
- Message-ID: <bakc.101.714318711@giraffe.ru.ac.za>
- Date: 20 Aug 92 13:51:51 GMT
- Article-I.D.: giraffe.bakc.101.714318711
- References: <713948443.F00001@blkcat.UUCP> <bakc.97.714037347@giraffe.ru.ac.za> <thos.714179622@suite.sw.oz.au>
- Sender: news@hippo.ru.ac.za
- Organization: Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa
- Lines: 112
-
- In article <thos.714179622@suite.sw.oz.au> thos@suite.sw.oz.au (Thomas Cohen) writes:
- >From: thos@suite.sw.oz.au (Thomas Cohen)
- >Subject: (Lucas electrics) Re: '57 TR3 no engine go jap?
- >Date: 18 Aug 92 23:13:42 GMT
-
- >In <bakc.97.714037347@giraffe.ru.ac.za> bakc@giraffe.ru.ac.za (MR KR COMAN) writes:
-
- >>1.
- >>Switchgear -- indictors, fuel pump switches, headlamps, dipswitchs, reverse
- >>lights.
-
- >Nope. All Vile Calumny. They work fine, as long as they're not fiddled
- >with. And they can be repaired without replacing as a unit.
- >The 30 year old wiring in my 997 Cooper is just fine thanks.
-
- Weeeell OK, perhaps....as I recall the 'lectrics on Mini's are pretty
- straight-forward, so the overall probability of problems arising might be
- proportionately lower. My *direct* experiences have been with Lucas
- systems on Jaguars, Rovers, Triumph sedans, Austin/Morris 1800's ('
- Landcrabs') and Austin 11/55's. Some memorable experiences: fuel switch
- system on XJ-6 self-destructed after 6 months -- stranded my Dad and I on a
- piece of road thu a semi-desert once; steering column indicator assembly on
- 11/55 caught alight; dipswitch on Rover, drop from high to low beam on
- "dark/stormy night" -- zappo, headlights go out completely. None of these
- had been fiddled with BTW.
-
- >>2.
- >>Fuel injection system: a la Triumph 2500 PI
-
- >The Lucas fuel injection is again a victim of bad press. If it can
- >run for 24 hours at Le Mans, it should do for a family car. The problem
- >(according to a recent 'Thoroughbred & Classic Cars' was that mechanics
- >just didn't want to learn how to service them, and they are fine once
- >set up right. Plus, they're a pretty neat design.
-
- "Ask the man who owned one!!!" Maybe there's a major difference between
- a well calibrated system supported by a factory pit crew and one on an
- average family car maintained by the average workshop droid?
-
- >>3.
- >>Heater/ventilation fan motors
- >I think your problem is you expect everything to work as well as an
- >American car, where you have twice as much room for any given component.
-
- Could be, 'cept the only "US-type" car I've ever owned was an old '64
- Chrysler Valiant (the Aussi one): bought, used and sold as a banger. Fine
- car, but golly it didn't even have a heater/ventilator! -- just two air
- flaps down in the footwell.
-
- >>4.
- >>Ignition distributors: points, vacuum advance mech. -- don'tcha also just
- >>love the way these little items attract the least amount of damp/moisture
- >>and go on strike??
-
- >Dunno. It's a flaky thing. In my Clubman GT I have driven through water
- >that was over the height of the exhaust (I could hear it bubbling out
- >back) and the water was coming in the drainholes in the floor - and
- >there was no problem. ^^^^In other cases I have driven through light
- drizzle >for 10 minutes and the car went on to 3 cylinders.^^^^
-
- "The prosecution rests, M'Lud."
-
- >>5.
- >>The DREADED SU FUEL PUMP!!!
-
- >Well, yes. Enuff said. Although if it is in good condition it will work
- >quite happily.
-
- >>6.
- >>The INFAMOUS LUCAS IGNITION COIL!!!!
-
- >Never used one (to my knowledge - unless those all-aluminium coloured
- >ones are Lucas - never had trouble with them anyway) - all my minis
- >use Bosch GT40s.
-
- Sensible choice. BTW, knew some blokes who worked for Leyland's assembly
- plantdown in Cape Town back in the early-mid 1970's. Completed vehicles
- used to be driven to dealers in convoys. Told me that on one memorable
- occasion out of a convoy of 20 *new* vehicles going up to Johannesburg (+\-
- 700 miles), 17 had conked out with electrical problems traced to duff coils
- and regulators. Got so bad that every convoy was accompanied by a service
- truck for a time.
-
- OK, (taking off fire-proof suit) to my mind the problems with Lucas (and
- the customer Leyland) really all belong to the period late-1960's thru the
- 1970's. The real blame rests with Leyland whose bloody useless approach to
- the business of competing in a market *that at one time they owned* lead to
- the term "Quality" (as in 'fitness for use') being tossed in the gurgler
- and flushed. Leyland would go to Lucas (and other suppliers) and say "We
- want a production run of X and the price we will pay is Y." -- where Y is
- marginally profitable to Lucas. Naturally, Lucas (and other Leyland
- suppliers besides) had no incentive to invest in ways of upgrading quality
- and productivity -- any old shit, as long as it was shipped to Leyland
- would do. Leyland's attitude was "Well if anything goes wrong, or its not
- built right, it'll either get fixed under warrenty or the dealer will sort
- it out." Known problems were thus "fixed" on individual cars instead of
- being eliminated at the design/engineering/manufacturing end of the
- business. It was the old "Quality costs money, ship the iron out the
- factory" syndrome, and Lucas as a supplier had to go along.
- My Dad spent 30 years in a firm that had Leyland as a customer during
- the period mentioned above, and I had close personal friends who worked at
- Leyland at the time (I worked for Ford) -- Honestly it would make any
- car-lover cry with rage at the willful lack of direction, incompetence,
- apathy and complacency demonstrated by a car firm that was once an
- international leader.
-
- P.S. I currently own a 1955 Rover 90, 1958 Land-Rover, and 1959 Rover 3
- litre -- their Lucas electrics (SU fuel pumps excluded) are sincerely bloody
- marvellous: what they should have been all along!!
-
- Cheers,
- Keith Coman
-