Lucas electrics (was: RE: Connectors (was: NEXT Color Printer find

Tony Duell wrote: [stuff deleted] I think it depends on vintage. More recent is decidedly better than older. My experiences include: - Multiple defective ignition amplifiers on an early series III V12 E-type. - Lack of suitable snubbers on the cooling fan relays on an early (like number three in the US) XJ12, resulting in overtemp problems in the middle of nowhere (jumper around the fried relay and limp home). - Multiple regulator failures with accompanying battery cook-off (no failure warnings other than sulfuric acid fumes filling the car) in the same XJ12. - A trashed engine in a 4.2 E type owing to the incredibly long integration time of the Lucas thermally-driven oil pressure gauge (blew a rear oil seal [not hard to do] on a twisty road; leaked enough oil to unport the oil pick up on the corners but never had any indication that I was losing oil pressure because the gauge had a response time measured in seconds) - Easily out-driven headlights on a 3.8 E type. While other vehicles of the same vintage had reasonably bright lights, the best one could hope for out of the Jag was a warm brownish glow. There were other, to-be-expected items, like the incredibly nasty Bendix on the 3.8 starter, worn brushes on the 3.8 starter, a worn-out washer fluid motor (attached to a _glass_ fluid reservoir), worn points on the wiper motor. There was once a piece in AutoWeek, back in the 80's, wherein one of the writers discussed how those of us who drove British cars learned to tuck in behind large trucks on dark, stormy nights, because while people would have a hard time seeing the feeble glow of our tail lights (driven by "Second String Electrons", rather than "Robust Detroit Electrons"), they'd at least see the bright lights of the trailer and _probably_ not drive up the ass-end of our cars. I finally addressed the problem by hacking in a Delco internally regulated alternator (which was a lot of fun on a positive-ground vehicle). -- Chris Kennedy chris(a)mainecoon.com http://www.mainecoon.com PGP fingerprint: 4E99 10B6 7253 B048 6685 6CBC 55E1 20A3 108D AB97