Interesting commentary on Lucas

[pharriso]

I enjoyed this article - https://home.collectorpartexchange.com/articles/everybody-hates-lucas?utm_source=cpx&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=shop-talk-2022-02-14, hope you do too!

[Slowtus]

The boring, cliched and vapid comments about Lucas have long gone beyond tedious - and mostly promulgated by the ignorati.

[pharriso]

The boring, cliched and vapid comments about Lucas have long gone beyond tedious......i.

Which is why I thought this article was interesting, it talks specifics.

[2cams70]

The boring, cliched and vapid comments about Lucas have long gone beyond tedious - and mostly promulgated by the ignorati.

100% agree. In particular major Lucas components such as starters, generators, alternators, distributors etc. are no less reliable than similar components from the likes of Bosch.

As an example of how ridiculous that article is it talks about Lucas having "male to male" bullet connectors in their harnesses. What absolute rubbish. Aside from the fact that "male to male" bullet connectors don't exist I'd be very surprised if it was actually Lucas that manufactured the wiring harnesses in British cars.

Harness manufacture is normally a specialized process. The companies making starters, alternators, etc. usually aren't also in the business of making harnesses. Bosch don't manufacture harnesses nor does Nippon Denso. Such work is normally contracted out to a specialist such as Yazaki.

I'm sure a lot of Lucas components were used in aeroplanes back in the day and nobody complains about them!

[alan.barker]

+1 the person who wrote the article has done so with many errors.
Alan

[batfish]

Just to correct a point, male to male bullet connectors do exists and were numerous in Elans

https://www.vehiclewiringproducts.co.uk ... -connector.

regards

Andy

[alan.barker]

For me that's a single female "snap connector" not a male to male. Which will accept 2 Bullets which of course are male.
Alan

[elanner]

Well, there's no smoke without fire and Lucas stuff could never be considered the top of the tree.

In my view the real tragedy was the knock-on effect that the poor quality had on the rest of the British car industry. Every marque was tainted.

Jaguar, in the US, has never really recovered.

[2cams70]

Well, there's no smoke without fire and Lucas stuff could never be considered the top of the tree.

Please name a few specific Lucas made components that you believe were second rate.

Lucas components in Fords were very reliable for example. Lucas often unfairly cops the blame for the sins of the vehicle manufacturer!

The most innovative automotive engineers have historically been mostly British by the way. That's why the F1 industry has historically been mostly based in Britain.

[baileyman]

Having no actual insider knowledge on this, I can't speak authoritatively, but I can speak imaginatively! And the scenario I imagine is that low priced English cars attracted poor owners who either could not buy competent service or could not find it nearby due to minimal dealer support for brands using Lucas or British wiring. The consequence of that would certainly looks like poor reliability, even if it wasn't.

John

[RogerFrench]

The description of male to male bullets is wrong, they are joined by a metal, not plastic, sleeve.
I think most issues with British electrics lie in harnesses, and car makers insistence on having a live feed wire with return via the bodywork. This only works with good connections, not self-tapping screws into rusty air!

[elanner]

Oh dear, nobody here wants to cause offence. It's just light hearted banter.

Sadly, Lucas did not have the finest of reputations for reliability. Neither, of course, did Lotus. Justified or not.

Life carries on.

[Slowtus]

The boring, cliched and vapid comments about Lucas have long gone beyond tedious......i.

Which is why I thought this article was interesting, it talks specifics.

Agreed - I certainly wasn't referencing you - I should have been clearer

Can't stand those clowns who grunt out their Lucas "jokes" probably the same cretins who think saying flux capacitor when they see a DeLorean is funny.

[Slowtus]

The boring, cliched and vapid comments about Lucas have long gone beyond tedious - and mostly promulgated by the ignorati.

100% agree. In particular major Lucas components such as starters, generators, alternators, distributors etc. are no less reliable than similar components from the likes of Bosch.

As an example of how ridiculous that article is it talks about Lucas having "male to male" bullet connectors in their harnesses. What absolute rubbish. Aside from the fact that "male to male" bullet connectors don't exist I'd be very surprised if it was actually Lucas that manufactured the wiring harnesses in British cars.

Harness manufacture is normally a specialized process. The companies making starters, alternators, etc. usually aren't also in the business of making harnesses. Bosch don't manufacture harnesses nor does Nippon Denso. Such work is normally contracted out to a specialist such as Yazaki.

I'm sure a lot of Lucas components were used in aeroplanes back in the day and nobody complains about them!

Lucas did NOT make wiring harnesses and for what it is I remember seeing harnesses being made in the Innocenti factory, for example in Seneffe when I dropped by to pick up my Inno 1300 back in 1974

Lucas Aerospace did use many components in aircraft and when I put together part of the navigation boxes for the AWACS at RAF Henlow I never heard that any of them fell out of the sky due to Lucas components or wiring. (none of the ones I worked on anyway)

Only clowns knobends and the obtuse continue to make these woefully stupid comments about things they obviously know nothing about.

[Andy8421]

Lucas certainly could make good stuff, Lucas Aerospace, CAV (excellent diesel injection systems), Girling and other subsidiaries were well regarded.

Their products for the UK car industry however weren't their finest hour. While the blame for the problems falls on the shoulders of the car manufacturers who specified the products, Lucas did have a poor reputation for reliability in the 60s and 70s which undoubtedly impacted the cars themselves. I moved to the US in the early 80s, and Lucas was widely referred to as 'the prince of darkness' amongst American UK car enthusiasts.

The worst culprit for electrical unreliability was the awful bullet connector, and as mentioned above that may not have been Lucas' fault. Lucas did have the 'Lucar' (spade) connector which was many times better than a bullet.

For those who care, a decent connector needs to form a gas and moisture tight seal to avoid corrosion at the contact points. Bullet connectors don't do this, and over time (particularly in exposed positions) will fail. When I first saw Japanese cars with seals on proper latching connectors, I was amazed. I do believe much of the reliability of Japanese cars came from decent connectors.