On Sat, Oct 18, 2025 at 12:02 PM David Wade via cctalk <[email protected]> wrote:
> > But I do not regard Lucas as significantly less reliable than other > > manufacturers. > > Their (mechanical) fuel injection systems as fitted to the UK Triumph > TR5 and TR6 were really bad. > When I first came to work in Manchester I lived in a shared house. The > owner had a TR6 with Lucas fuel injection. > He was always having it serviced, but it still seemed to take ages to > get it running on a morning. Never worked on it, although I have read the 'real' manual for it, the one that covers dismantling and rebuilding the metering distributor. It should work properly. There is an 'overfuel' lever on the metering distributor which pulls back the shuttle stop and gives a rich mixture for cold starting -- was all that all set up and working correctly? Was the fuel pump drawing the right current (bad connections causing voltage drop?). Fuel pressure correct at the input to the metering distributor? And before touching the fuel injection system, you should check the ignition, valve clearances, compression, etc. BUT.. several times I've been told that $system is unreliable/difficult to service/never works properly/... Three examples I can instantly think of are : Citroen hydropneumatic suspension; The Prestor Reflex shutter in the Pentina camera (which I will admit has quality-control issues); Philips V2000 video recorders. Without exception I've had no problems with them. The problems seem to stem from the fact that they are all very different from their competitors. If you attack any of them based on a knowledge of so-say similar systems (spring/damper car suspension; Compur camera shutter; VHS video recorders) you will have no end of problems. If you sit down with the service manuals, really understand how they work, and then repair them 'properly' you wll have no problems at all. One of my father's secrets to not having breakdowns in his cars was to NEVER allow a mechanic within 50 feet of the vehicle! We both regard(ed) such people as being one level below computer Field Service. And from conversations with current-day ones, alas my views have not changed. I've yet to meet one who can logically diagnose a fault -- you know, measuring things before changing anything. -tony
