[DeTomaso] Charlie on the hook again....

Roland Jaeckel Jaeckel-Partner-GMBH at t-online.de
Tue Jun 12 15:27:36 EDT 2007


Did any of you ever had a look into a british car electric of the early seventies? 
Cars of that period usually had maybe three or four glass fuses at all. 
British cars never used fuse boxes as in the Pantera. 
Sure the Pantera has a Lucas wiper motor. Why? Because it was cheaper to 
construct a cable driven wiper system for a low production car.
What kind of thermo switches where used by american cars of that period?
They had none and if they had, the most of the switches came from Lucas. 
Lucas and Bosch where the biggest electrical system suppliers in that time.
What about the rest of the electrical system? Turn signal switch? FORD,
Ignition switch? FORD. Alternator? FORD. Voltage regulator? FORD.
Light, fan and other switches? Alfa Romeo. Lamps? Fiat and Alfa Romeo.
Front turn signals are no British parts, the are from a FIAT 850 Spider USA 
and the two colored ones are from a Renault 12.
Wiring harness and relais? Made in Italy. So where you guys see a Lucas system?
Because it fails? I have a book at home, that i got from an old worker at DT,
where all DT supliers of that time are written down. Lucas is not on the list.
Every 30+ years old car has electrical problems and the most of them have no
Lucas system. I won't say that Lucas make good electrical systems, they are a
nightmare. But on the Pantera, the most broken parts in the electric are the turn signal switch,
the ignition switch, the alternator, the ignition system and the starter motor.
Who made all that parts? For sure not Lucas.
Roland Jaeckel
DeTomaso Parts Center Europe
www.detomaso.de

Mark McWhinney skrev:
>>> LUCAS was never involved in the electrical system of a Pantera 
> 
> My windshield wiper fluid pump says LUCAS on it. 

As does the wiper motor and the cooling fans.

There are other British electrical items, like the Otter fan 
thermo-switches, the front flashers, and I would be very surprised if 
not the entire electrical system around the steering wheel is British. 
The fusebox is probably British as well.

Thomas



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