Lucas Electrics

[Stelth]

I haven't seen this one here:

Why didn't the Germans bomb the Lucas plants during WWII? The Germans considered Lucas an ally.
The Lucas motto: "Get home before dark."
"And the Lord said 'let there be light'...Joseph Lucas replied 'no way, Lord, no way'."
Lucas denies having invented darkness. But they still claim "sudden, unexpected darkness".
Lucas--inventor of the first intermittent wiper.
Lucas--inventor of the self-dimming headlamp.
The three-position Lucas switch--DIM, FLICKER and OFF. The other three switch settings--SMOKE, SMOLDER and IGNITE.
The original anti-theft devices--Lucas Electric products.
"I've had a Lucas pacemaker for years and have never experienced any prob..."
If Lucas made guns, wars would not start either.
Did you hear about the Lucas powered torpedo? It sank.
It's not true that Lucas, in 1947, tried to get Parliament to repeal Ohm's Law. They withdrew their efforts when they met too much resistance.
Did you hear the one about the guy that peeked into a Land Rover and asked the owner "How can you tell one switch from another at night, since they all look the same?" "He replied, it doesn't matter which one you use, nothing happens!"
Back in the '70s Lucas decided to diversify its product line and began manufacturing vacuum cleaners. It was the only product they offered which didn't suck.
Quality Assurance phoned and advised the Engineering guy that they had trouble with his design shorting out. So he made the wires longer.
Why do the English drink warm beer? Lucas made the refrigerators, too.
Alexander Graham Bell invented the Telephone. Thomas Edison invented the Light Bulb. Joseph Lucas invented the Short Circuit.
Recommended procedure before taking on a repair of Lucas equipment: check the position of the stars, kill a chicken and walk three times clockwise around your car chanting: "Oh mighty Prince of Darkness protect your unworthy servant."
Lucas systems actually uses AC current; it just has a random frequency.
Lucas is an acronym for Loose Unsoldered Connections and Splices.
In the 1980's Lucas tried to get into the newly burgeoning PC market, but they discontinued the product when they couldn make it leak oil.
Why are there no skyscrapers in London? Lucas makes elevators
Lucas Factory motto, put in a good day's work then home before dark.
Why is there no death penalty in England? Lucas makes electric chairs.

 

[Wampahoofus]

Lol, well said.

There's a secret to keeping Lucas parts going - don't let the smoke escape!

 

[mene]

Only people that has had Lucas would understand, it is as funny as it is true, gosh, it is making me weep to remember, and not from laughing I can assure you, I do miss the cars despite that, eventually I figured out it was mostly bad connections and I used to just solder all the connections that in my case solved about 95% of the problem, and I fixed Hillman's, MG's (still have one but it hasn't run in 20 years, not electric),Range Rover, Land Rover, Ford's, Triumph cars and bikes, I know I'm still missing half.

 

[R80RS]

Lucas Electrics, founded by Joseph Lucas, the Prince of Darkness.

 

[artificialist]

I was once told "The Lucas smoke theory"

The theory is that in all electrical components, there is a special smoke inside. That is why when something goes wrong, smoke leaks from the failed part.

I remember an automotive teacher asked the class to name different foreign cars sold in the USA during the 1960s or 1970s. He was waiting for someone to guess something British.

What is interesting is that Lucas makes brakes, but their brakes don't seem to be any better or worse than other brake part manufacturers.

 

[morepwr]

once you let the smoke out nothing works again.

 

[Rick in PA]

 

[Shannow]

When I was a late teenager buying cars, the first question I asked over the phone was "Lucas or Bosch ?"...which was usually answered honestly, or "at least come and see the car".

When attending car shows, and looking at the cars that I used to buy, either all the Lucas stuff went to the wreckers, or they were all retroed to Bosch.

 

[edhackett]

My 1959 Giulietta came with the Lucas starter. It didn't ever give me any problems electrically. The starter drive on these was known for issues. If the flywheel teeth and starter drive were aligned just right, the starter gear would just bump against the flywheel teeth and not engage or spin. The solution was to put the car in gear, grab the bottom of the seat, and scootch forward to get the car to move a fraction of an inch. Worked every time. I love cars with character.

I replaced it with a Bosch unit when I did the full restoration after the fire(arson in storage facility where I kept the car).

Ed

 

[Silk]

I didn't have any problems with Lucas stuff back in the day, most of it was my own stupidity. Always preferred a Lucas distributor to a Bosch or Delco Remy, and Magnelli Maretti was just total junk. The inertia starter pinion was a brutal design, cheap and nasty, but it worked.

Looking back what I like about Lucas was the colour coding - red for live, green for switched, brown for charging, purple for horn etc....and they stuck to their colour coding. What annoys me about the Japanese wiring that I mostly work on these days, is that the colour coding means nothing - a green wire goes into a connector block...and comes our orange. How on earth are you supposed to trace faults when they do stuff like that ?

 

[artificialist]

Originally Posted By: Shannow
When I was a late teenager buying cars, the first question I asked over the phone was "Lucas or Bosch ?"...which was usually answered honestly, or "at least come and see the car".

When attending car shows, and looking at the cars that I used to buy, either all the Lucas stuff went to the wreckers, or they were all retroed to Bosch.


I went to an all British car show about 4 years ago, and many people kept their Lucas electrical parts. Some of the vendors had bins full of various brand new Lucas parts to replace the ones that cause the most trouble.

Somewhere outside the show, there was a 1960s Datsun Fairlady. I thought about how Datsun made some cars that were similar to British cars, but Hitachi electrical components are usually good. The reliability of some of the Datsun models are one reason sales of compact British cars declined in the USA.

 

[Silk]

Early Datuns were based on BMC designs, and one engine was nearly identical to the B block. The inlet manifold was a bolt on to my 1622 engine, and thought of getting one and having a 2 barrel Niki....but I prefered the SU anyway. Never thought about the dist....but then I thought the Lucas dist was pretty good anyway.

 

[SteveSRT8]

My first car was a Triumph TR-4. Full of wonderful British innovation.

Some folks understand...

 

[Papa Bear]

i had a few 1960's BSA and Triumph motorcycles. I feel your pain.

 

[Jarlaxle]

My uncle had an Enfield. To this day, he has no idea what possessed him to do that.

 

[Win]

I've had four Jaguars, and never had a bad Lucas part.

Plenty of bad Bosch, Hella, AB, and, occasionally, Marelli, though.

 

[Bud]

Over the last 50 years I have had MG's, Triumph's, and Sunbeams. Very few problems with Lucas parts. Even if you did, these cars are very easy to work on. That was a good article though.

 

[expat]

There are actually worse auto electric manufacturers.

Many British cars have switches made by the company 'Clear Hooters'
spring loaded they can explode spectacularly with no warning.

Triumphs were normally fitted with Lucas distributors that would give 4-6 degrees ignition scatter even when new.
But that was considered Good compared to the Delco distributors fitted to some models.

 

[JetStar]

In the late 70's / early 80's, I used to hate to see british cars come into the body shop that I worked at while going to school. I was the only one there that knew anything about electrics and was stupid enough to take on the challenge to get everything to work. Get about half the stuff working, slam the dooor, half of that stuff would stop working, and half the stuff that didn't work would start working. Don't recall many component failures, mainly bad connections due to corrosion on the terminals. It seemed like the plating they used on the terminals did not hold back corrosion. It appeared like they used cadmium plating vs. tin or solder dip. Saw may older japanese cars with the same problem.
I did wire in a delcotron alternator in my uncles MG when the lucas alternator smoked. Blasphemy, I know.