The 'E' Type Forum

I came across this on an Alfa site - yes, they of Fiamm and Magnetti Marelli...

Courtesy of the Baltimore MG Club:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=38&v=ZwHBXQjaCrw

The Muricans are still slandering the old boy!

Peter

Amusing although Mr Lucas gets an unfair press IMO. The parts we use are now 50 years old and well past their intended life. The fact that so many parts do still work is proof that actually Mr Lucas made pretty good parts. How many electrical car bits made today will still work in 2068 I wonder....

I couldn't agree with you more, Julian . The only Lucas part which ever gave me trouble ( and that was because it was pressed into a usage it was not designed for ) was the converted wiper motor which was used by Triumph to drive the high pressure delivery pump for the fuel injection on the Triumph 2.5 PI . Providing continuous full flow at 106 lbs/sq.in was more than it could cope with. Apart from that, in about 400,000 miles of motoring powered by Lucas ( about the first third of my now 56 year career ) I never experienced a single failure

PS My 1965 FHC still has its original coil date stamped week 4 of 1965!!

Pretty much all my my lucas bits are original on the mg, as are the bits on the jag. The most unreliable electrical item on my mg was the fuel pump....and it was made by SU!! Pump fine. Points a hopeless idea. I long ago ditched the old SU pump for a modern electronic one....

Sorry guys, you are all blinded by your own rose tinted spectacles. Jaguar’s and Lucas’s fearsome reputation, earned during the ‘70s and ‘80s, was thoroughly deserved. For example, starter motors and alternators were so unreliable that almost every town of any size had an auto-electrical business where you could take your non functioning starter and have it rebuilt. I had to do this most recently for my Triumph Dolomite. Other cars, a Mini and a Ford Escort were similarly afflicted during my brief ownership. It wasn’t just Lucas electrics. I recall problems with Wipac elastic trickery on British motorbikes, like magneto issues on BSAs.

And not just Jaguars. I recall a boss who got so fed up with his Aston Martin running out of electricity he threatened to park it on the M1 near Newport Parnell until they cured it’s electrician issues.

That YMMV is less an indication of Lucas reliability, and more that your car has been more fortunate than many.