Bloody Gremlins

I spent a very interesting afternoon learning how to put a new dizzy, condenser and points into my Series One with the help of an automotive genius friend of mine due to the failure of my luminition system.

Refitting the bits ,and doing the timing took us about 30 minutes, but getting her to run took us about 2 more hours. Once we had fitted it all she fired up and ran the first press of the tit, after that we couldn't get her to run at all.

After going through the whole ignition electrickery under the bonnet for the umpteenth time, we found that the wires to the fuel pump had failed and it was a lack of fuel preventing her going.

A couple of minutes later after rewiring the pump to a new switch she now ran, and still does run , like a dream.

I seam to spend all my time chasing problems around the loom.

Still love her though.

Reply to
Rory
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There is a reason why i've rewired both my landrovers and 3 others for other people... :)

Reply to
Tom Woods

Yes, the poor quality and design of the wiring in Series vehicles have led me to completely rewire one with a custom loom, and half of another one.

Alex

Reply to
Alex

Ow, come on, poor quality of the loom, the thing is 50 years old and original! My better half's 10 year old mundao has more electrical faults

Reply to
Rory

On or around 11 Apr 2007 10:53:52 -0700, "Rory" enlightened us thusly:

fair cop, that, we all slag off Lucas electrics, but when new I doubt there was much wrong with 'em. Some of the more recent stuff is nowhere near the same quality. Take those black rubber bullet connectors, for example - about the only thing you can say about the design is that it's got one more contact surface than it strictly needs. But most of 'em still work 30 years down the line.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

Austin Shackles wrote: Take those black rubber bullet connectors, for example -

Until you disconnect them, and then reconnect them hoping they will still make good contact!

Reply to
Duracell Bunny

As far as I'm concerned, the original Series 2/2a wiring looms were very wrong. Practically nothing is fused. How the hell they have managed to survive 30-odd years without burning out completely in the event of a fault is a mystery to me.

Alex

Reply to
Alex

Just goes to show that the harness engineers knew their job!

Richard

Reply to
beamendsltd

On or around Thu, 12 Apr 2007 11:58:05 +0000, beamendsltd enlightened us thusly:

quite. the other point is that if you look at the old looms compared with modern ones, the spec of the wire is about 3 times as good. heavier gauge wires, about twice as much insulation and on the old ones, fabric covered over the PVC or other plastic.

modern wiring on vehicles is very much minimum spec, which is why you get problems from trying to run bigger headlamp bulbs and suchlike. Old ones have nice fat headlamp wiring.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

And there's a nice big gap round the terminals so water can drain (or perhaps that should be boil off!), unlike modern ones that retain the water to make absolutely certain a fault stays introduced ;-)

Richard

Reply to
BeamEnds

Yebbut in the days of yore you always carried some glass paper to clean terminals before connecting. And a very big hammer.

Richard

Reply to
BeamEnds

The difference between the old bullets and the modern offerings is that the old ones were made from tinned brass and the new ones are steel. Take a magnet with you when you go to buy some, I do, and if they stick to it tell them to stick them. I've managed to find some old stock Ripaults ones and bought all their stock.

How can you say they are 'very wrong' when you have just admitted they 'survive 30 odd years' that just shows how reliable the old stuff was. :-)

Martin

Reply to
Oily

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