On Tue, 07 Feb 2006 10:47:01 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
none wrote:
( Used him alot to clean out all the bad electrics that came on British
cars. When I'd finished that MG or Jaguar would be running on a
Ford/autolite altenator/regulator and a good marine grade all copper
wiring harness.)

;-) What problems did you have with the actual wire?

Lucas got the blame for the poor quality components but in reality it was
the penny pinching car makers demanding the lowest prices. The original
Jaguar company being notorious for this. If Lucas didn't make them down to
their price they'd have bought elsewhere. But Lucas also made very high
quality stuff for Rolls Royce - and of course aerospace work.
Funnily the vehicle which sticks in my mind with the very worst electrics
I've owned was a small Bedford van - made by GM in the UK. With mainly
Delco electrics. It was a miracle to have all the basic stuff working at
any one time...

Well... GM electronics have allways been notoriously bad.
Had a brother in law who was a designer for Delco at one time and
later Packard electric. He was always complaining about GM and how
crappy they could be in regards to design standards.

As for the Lucas wiring harnesses, aluminum wire and incredibly cheap
grade vinyl insulation. Or have you never seen a TR4 that'd gone up in
smoke from harness fire?
In the very last years of production at British Leyland that damn
aluminum wire would find it's way into just about everything they
rolled off the line.
And what with the poorly designed electronics in the late models any
resistance load variances over the harness could make for some very
wonky functions.
Never have liked anything turned out by Lucas. ( I'd have a constant
stream of customers who'd need new rectifiers for their Lucas
altenators. Those things tended to burn out every few months or so and
many customers insisted on keeping their British import authentic.
Even when I tried to tell then that not all MG's had Lucas under the
hood and that it'd be ok to replace with more reliable electrics. Take
for example the v8 mgb's with the 3.2 litre v8 from buick. Very rare
state side but very popular back across the pond. All quality Delco,
at least compared to what Lucas stuck in 'em.)