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Thread ID: 103573	2009-09-28 11:44:00	Alternator question	prefect (6291)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
814778	2009-09-29 07:48:00	And when I woke up I was indeed in Noddy land.:rolleyes: Indeed, that is so, it seems I have lived my entire life in Noddy land :) Of all the motorbikes I've owned, the only two that gave any electrical problems was the BSA Bantam with Wipac AC lighting, and the Vincent Rapide I had that had Miller electrics. When the Miller electrics were replaced with Lucas, there was never any further problem. (I tell a lie, I did have a magneto that gradually lost its spark, but that was no big deal) I've never had car electrics problems on British cars fitted with Lucas, unlike some Jap ones when I've had 3 alternator problems.	Terry Porritt (14)
814779	2009-09-29 19:53:00	Indeed, that is so, it seems I have lived my entire life in Noddy land :) Of all the motorbikes I've owned, the only two that gave any electrical problems was the BSA Bantam with Wipac AC lighting, and the Vincent Rapide I had that had Miller electrics. When the Miller electrics were replaced with Lucas, there was never any further problem. (I tell a lie, I did have a magneto that gradually lost its spark, but that was no big deal) I've never had car electrics problems on British cars fitted with Lucas, unlike some Jap ones when I've had 3 alternator problems. Only someone from Noddy land would suggest that English bikes were in the same class as Jap bikes.	Cicero (40)
814780	2009-09-29 20:42:00	Wipac and Miller are just Lucas wannabees. Perhaps it is a geographical feature? ;)	R2x1 (4628)
814781	2009-09-29 22:09:00	Only someone from Noddy land would suggest that English bikes were in the same class as Jap bikes. There you go again....inventing scenarios.....who said that ? Anyway apart from the Vincent, about the only decent postwar British bike up till when I dropped out of motorbikes, was the Velo OHC KSS/KTT At the time I'm talking about there weren't any Japanese bikes. BMW and Italian bikes were ok, Harleys, it they were ever seen in the UK, were all side valve heaps of nonsense with cowhorn handlebars and running boards, and I think hand gear change :punk :banana The British bike industry killed themselves off, because they weren't prepared to innovate, and couldn't get past the dreadful OHV parallel twin design vibro-massage concept. OHC was just too expensive, or so they said. I remember when the Honda Dream was first imported into the UK, I think it was a 300cc bike or thereabouts, sometime in the 1960s, the advertisements had a Dream lined up against a Black Shadow, and the wording was "rpm versus cc". The Vincent was already then getting on for a 20 years old design, and still better than anything made locally. But getting back to Lucas, you need to realise that it's no use going by New Zealand experience. NZ was a third world country back in the 50s and 60s, bikes and cars were absolute bombs held together with No. 8 wire. Who could go out and buy a new vehicle just like that? Even in the 70s when we arrived, the roads were just full of bombs, barely holding together. I imagine No. 8 was used for rewiring harness's, rewinding dynamos, certainly used for telephone wires. :clap No, Lucas products of the 50s and 60s were no better and no worse, no less reliable than other contemporary products made in Europe. Lucas made what the British car industry wanted, and down to the price the car industry was prepared to pay. If there was any production problem, (when for instance, the dynamo commutator design was changed from separate segments to a folded band **), Ford would threaten to change over to AC Delco. When Delco had production problems, Vauxhall would threaten to change to Lucas. They all fitted Lucas Headlamps. There was nothing wrong with these. In fact the 7" lamps, both sealed beam and pre-sealed beam were identicle to US GE lamps, just the lens patterns swopped over for British driving. By the time Jap cars were being imported it was too late, UK car industry went down the tubes and took Lucas with it. ** Commutator segments used to be stamped out as individual pieces and then moulded into the commutator. Later on they used a rolled copper strip having anchoring feet on the inside, and the strip was bent round with the ends butting and thermo-moulded to form the commutator. A photoelectric device on a slitting machine detected the join in the copper and put the first slit in at that point. Then the commutator was indexed 12 times and slits cut through the copper to form individual segments. Initially, there were periodic problems with not detecting the join line, and slits were put in the wrong places.	Terry Porritt (14)
814782	2009-09-29 22:21:00	You should change your name to English Joe after that lot. I've never had car electrics problems on British cars fitted with Lucas, unlike some Jap ones when I've had 3 alternator problems. I thought the above suggested English superiority.:lol:	Cicero (40)
814783	2009-09-29 22:25:00	Yes we served a long penance of using British car substitutes. The introduction of GST and the abolition of preferential pom tariffs saw the sudden end of the trash imports. As soon as an alternative was available, it was seized on joyfully. Anyone thinking that lucas sealed beam look-alikes were equivalent to real ones has not tried to ride a motor cycle fitted with one in fog at night. More light was projected radially than forward, fortunately both were small enough amounts to not pose as much of a hazard as might be caused if they were bright enough to destroy night vision. That lamp was binned the moment a garage that sold GE lamps opened.	R2x1 (4628)
814784	2009-09-30 00:23:00	I actually spent several months in the Lighting Section at Lucas Gt King St. during 1958/59, and tested sample GE sealed beam units, 7" and 5" (from memory), round ones, they didn't make rectangular ones then, as I said, the light distribution patterns and intensities were identicle to the corresponding Lucas units, as indeed they should have been as they were made to the same specifications. So I don't know where the bad experience came from, as Joe would say, probably because it was mounted upside down here in NZ ?? :clap	Terry Porritt (14)
814785	2009-09-30 00:44:00	Did you make blackout lights those ones with a slit hahaha just kidding Terry. BSA Bastard stops again their logo should have been 3 rifles in a jumbled heap instead of leaning together.	prefect (6291)
814786	2009-09-30 00:51:00	Back again.... I have to admit that there was a mentality at Lucas that seemed at times to be more concerned with sorting out the bad from the good, as a stop gap measure, rather than finding the cause of a problem ASAP. The commutator problem above is a good example, I spent a lot of time and effort making a high speed air gauging system to count the number of slots in commutators, in a rotary jig. If 13 were counted (12 plus the join), the armature was rejected. Another example was non contacting hardness measurement of windscreen wiper shafts that had gone through induction hardening, or not as the case may be. The problem lay in the automatic chucking. Yet another was checking the filament position of BPF bulbs, and rejecting those that failed. Maybe all the Lucas rejects were shipped down here :thumbs:	Terry Porritt (14)
814787	2009-09-30 02:25:00	[QUOTE=Terry Porritt;82461 Maybe all the Lucas rejects were shipped down here :thumbs:[/QUOTE] We would never describe you thus Ter.:banana	Cicero (40)
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