[rollei_list] Re: VERY OT: Lucas Electrical Systems
- From: "Austin Franklin" <austin.franklin@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2009 08:23:34 -0500
Hi Marc,
> Lucas stuff works wonderfully so long as you
> understand the maintancance interval. Read what
> was required and do it, and it is deathlessly
> reliable. Bosch was junk until they started
> making stuff in Mexico City. Then quality control ramped up.
>
> Go figure. But when someone on this List can
> prove a deeper time working with Bosch or Lucas
> gear than I have, I will stand pat.
I've restored and/or owned at least some 30+ Mercedes and Porsches, and some
dozen British cars. And probably worked on an order of magnitude more. I'd
disagree with you on your Lucas vs Bosch position. There were two problems
I'd most always encounter with Lucas electrics. One was notorious bad
ground connections. Whether this was the fault of Lucas or every automaker
that used them, well, that's could be debated. I never had ground
connection problems with Bosch. The wires also frayed at the connections
frequently with Lucas, and not with Bosch.
The second is the actual components themselves. The fuel pumps certainly
stand out. Everyone (probably an exaggeration, but most) I know who had an
MG had fuel pump problems. Including my self. I'd have to give it a
"whack" every now and then...and they (in the MGs and Triumphs) conveniently
placed the fuel pump right behind the driver's seat underneath a plywood (in
the case of the MGA) panel.
Bosch alternators we always rebuilt, Lucas, we replaced.
I almost always replaced wiring harnesses in the Triumphs, MGs and Jaguars I
restored, but I really can't recall ever replacing a wiring harness in a
Mercedes or Porsche.
The advantage of the British cars was they were cheap and easy to fix...but
required fixing frequently. The advantage of the German cars was they
didn't break down often...but were expensive and difficult to fix. The
blower motor on a 108 or 109 Mercedes was (at least) a one week job. On any
of the British cars I replaced that on, was about ten minutes.
I did work on a couple of Maseratis that had the Citroen hydraulics (Merak)
and that system was really kludged in to that car. I have nothing nice to
say about that car or that system as it applied to the Merak. Never worked
on a Citroen.
Regards,
Austin
---
Rollei List
- Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Subscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe'
in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org
- Unsubscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with
'unsubscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org
- Online, searchable archives are available at
//www.freelists.org/archives/rollei_list
Other related posts:
