Old tractor and battery terminals

Extension test leads are no problem, right?

That's why I've always loved Fords. Run a remote starter switch (or short a screwdriver) across the start and hot terminals on the solenoid and you're standing right there while the engine cranks over, test equipment in hand.

Unless one adds one (should be fairly simple and inexpensive) to aid in troubleshooting the ancient beasties.

Great minds think alike. BTDT on a dark road once.

That'll do 'er. I always checked the fuse box for tinfoil or nails before buying a new used vehicle, too. My time with a shadetree mechanic while going to UTI was of immense value. I found out how NOT to do 101+ things. I saw him rebuilding an engine once. He dipped the entire main bearing in pure STP. When I told him it wasn't oil, that he had to mix it with oil (or use assembly grease) and that he shouldn't put anything behind the bearing, he scoffed and continued on the way he had. The poor buyer got 1000 miles into his cross-country trip before the main bearing spun.

Chrome bumber Bs had the dual/split battery configuration. Rubber-bumper('74 and newer?) Bs had a single 12 volt battery.

Just more to go wrong. A dead simple mechanical switch is the easiest to troubleshoot.

I've had cars come in with several screws and nails corroded off in the clamp.

That's correct. The switch is activated by a rod that is moved by the starter button. The battery cable and starter cable to the switch connections are just hanging out in the wind pretty much so a screwdriver or similar will work the activate the starter motor. Eric

Lucas makes heaters too, huh?

The fuel injection computer was destroyed, not my tester. The solder holding a thick solid wire to the top of the stud-mount clamp Zener melted and the wire popped off. The next high-voltage discharge wrecked the module before I could run around the engineers and stop it.

Do side terminals corrode?

-jsw

I hear they gave up on vacuums because they found it was the only thing they could design that reallt didn't suck - -

Yes. Just not as quickly and as seriously.

Enlightenment, at last!

No, fridges.

- The list of Obama administration disappointments would take three rolls of toilet paper to record. --BMF

Oh, read that thinking the tester went t*ts-up.

Oh, well. Who let them loose around a power switch, anyway?

Yes, but they do so a bit less than the top post style. The real fun is when someone uses an -open- end wrench on the 5/16" bolt head. Luckily, most of the terminal bolts are made with large round heads which permit channel lock pliers to be used on them. Insulated, please. ;)

OK, the manual I DLed didn't have a pic of the starter switch, but Amazon did. It's the old floor mounted type of momentary switch like we used to have for headlight dimming (which were spdt) in ye olden days.

Were it my tractor, I'd think about adding a solenoid and remote switch for it for underhood work. $20-30 and an hour of time seems well worth it. Solenoids are an RCH from "dead simple", too. Heck, you can probably draw an entire tractor schematic in 4 minutes on a

3x5" card.

Yeah, it's probably worse in snow country, with salt adding a bit of corrosion to any bare steel like that.

- The list of Obama administration disappointments would take three rolls of toilet paper to record. --BMF

Some -- but the worst was when I installed a current shunt in series with the battery to the fuse block. There was an easy place to mount it -- a shelf on the right side just in front of the firewall. (I was using some aircraft instruments as displays, plus a 24-hour wind-up aircraft clock on a secondary panel -- removable so a passenger could fit in the seat.

It was fine until I hit a vigorous bump, and the bonnet (US hood) prop rod fell down and shorted the load side of the shunt to ground. That stopped the car rather rapidly. :-) (No, I can't blame Lucas for this, it was my own modification which did it.) When I rebuilt it, using a short coil of 16 Ga wire as a shunt (it wasn't calibrated, anyway -- just a rough reading of load with and without headlights and heater fan.) I added a Plexiglass shield to prevent a repeat of the short.

And the one electrical part which did give regular problems was

*not* branded "Lucas" -- but rather "SU". This was the electric fuel pump, which slowly burned the points of the toggle linkage to the solenoid, and every so often required adjustment. When the fuel pump stopped, the first thing to do was to reach up to the ignition switch and switch it off and on several times to pump the float bowls full again. Then pull over to the side of the road, remove the battery cover behind the two seats, get one half of the jack crank rod for the "King Dick" screw jack, and get back in. Start up, and whenever the fuel flow stopped, pick up the rod and bang it down on the side of the fuel pump (not sure what a driver in the RHD UK versions would do, as he was sitting almost on top of it), and it would go "tic, tic, tic, tic, ..." and work again for a while. Once I got to my destination (usually work) I would climb under the right side near the rear tire, reach in and unscrew the nut connecting the wire, remove the nut under that, and pull off the insulating cap. Then I would remove two screws, and turn the toggle points assembly a few turns clockwise, and re-assemble it, and it would be fine for a few months. (Yes, I always had the needed tools for the task at hand. :-)

Now -- a friend also had a MGA-1600, and shortly after the two of us had done a full rebuild on our fuel pumps (new diaphragm and toggle points), he (while working night shift, so he had free time in the day) pulled into the dealer to pick up some parts for his MGA. As he pulled in, he saw someone with his head under the right rear side and thought "It looks like he is working on his fuel pump -- no just because the two of us just did it does not mean that he is."

Anyway, he went "Well ... I don't know much about these cars, but a friend does, and he said it was the fuel pump."

"But what was it doing?"

"Well, when I turn on the ignition, it goes "Tic, Tic, Tic, Tic ..."

It took my friend, and the parts guy about five minutes to stop laughing, and explain to him that yes, it was the fuel pump he heard, but that was the sound of a perfectly healthy one. :-)

Now that was spectacular. For whatever reason, the parking light covers never leaked on either my MGA 1500 or the MGA 1600 Mk-II. The rear light coves for the 1600 Mk-II were the same as on a Midget, I think. Long rectangle ended by a half-circle at each end, mounted horizontally on the MGA and vertically oh the Midget. That also remained watertight, as did the older light covers on the MGA 1500.

However, I did have a problem during a driving rain. (Summer thunderstorm.) I started out from work in a nice dry summer day, so the top (UK hood) was down, and a heavy rainstorm came up As long as I kept going at speed, only my hair was getting wet, and I had a spare wiper blade to clean sprinkles off the inside surface of the windscreen (windshield). Suddenly, the light came on to indicate no charging current. I pulled over under an overpass, got out, and checked. I had expected a broken fan belt, but what had happened was the belt pulley on the crankshaft had split into its two disc components and was no longer driving the belt.

The temperature went up a bit, but with all the water splashing on the radiator, it was not overheating -- the thermo-siphon was doing its job, so I continued to home. (It was a MBG 1800cc engine by then, but with a MGA pulley to keep it just a little shorter, and was running with the MGA's SU carbs and intake manifold, as well as the water pump, starter motor, and flywheel to make things fit.

A friend helped me pick up a replacement pulley, and it was working again.

So -- really no problems with Lucas electrics for me, just the SU electric fuel pump.

Enjoy, DoN.

The "Ticky-Ticky on my mini used to refuse to start occaisionally too

- I'd give it a rap and it would generally go for another month.The one on the '53 TD was misbehaving too the other year - we got a solid state conversion kit for it - no more points!!!!

The electrical problems on my Vauxhaul Firenza 2300 were not lucas problems either - that beasty had AC DElco electrics and I lost the regulator coming into Halifax from Sydney, after having replaced the timing belt on the side of the road. Not sure who made the electrics on the Mystique, but the electrical connections were the biggest problem on that car -other than rust. Nothing electrical could be as ignorant as Ducellier or Paris Rhone thogh - Peugeot and Fiat.