[DeTomaso] Lucas wiring

[MikeLDrew at aol.com]

In a message dated 10/16/08 3 04 41, shelbygt at cfu.net writes:


> The Lucas
> wiring is probably the weakest link in the thing.
> 

And the worst urban legand.

There is NO Lucas wiring in any De Tomaso car.   None.   Nada.   Zippo.

So forget that.

What there is, is ITALIAN wiring (which isn't much better), mated to a 
hodge-podge of Italian, American, and British switches, senders, relays etc.

The radiator and A/C relays, for example, are by Sipea.   The horn relay is 
Fiamm.   (Both are Italian).

The only Lucas-ish things on the car are the rocker switches (headlight etc.) 
and the turn signal switch.   Even that is marked with Ford stampings, since 
it was taken from the Capri.   But as the Capri was a UK design (also produced 
at Ford plants in Belgium and Germany), it was filled with British stuff   
from top to bottom, and it seems likely that Ford subcontracted to Lucas to 
provide a version of their ubiquituous turn signal switch, which in various forms 
populated dozens of different British cars in the 60s and 70s.

So it may be fair to say that a few switches are Lucas items (or derived from 
Lucas, as it's possible the rocker switches were built in Italy; they're not 
marked in any way), but the Italians get all the blame for the wiring!

Mike


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