I understand what you mean Peter. We do actually get a lot of serious fog all through the year, I live in a polder surrounded by water.
For me its a challenge, I like everything to work as designed even if the design was off. So on my old Lexus everything works, on my XK8 even the parking sensors "work" they are next to useless but I am still happy that they work. If things don't work it bugs me. I love driving cars but I love working on them almost as much.

I am a bit pissed at the moment that the battery is no longer charging, that does not fall into the nice to have bucket of things that need doing. Tomorrow I will start the diagnosis.

 

i suspect that fog lamps were probably very effective about 75 years ago, when cars lights were driven off of generators and bulb technology was primitive. not so much now...IMO.

 

It sounds as if your generator or regulator is not working.
To test the generator, connect a wire between the D and F terminals of the generator.
Start the car and using the multimeter (which I understand you have) check the voltage out put at 1500 rpm. DON'T GO ANY HIGHER RPM AS YOU MAY DAMAGE THE GENERATOR WITH EXCESS VOLTAGE!!
You should be getting in excess of 12 volts and possibly 14 to 16 volts.
If you are not getting this sort of voltage, then the generator is not working.
If the generator is working as above, then the problem is in the regulator.

 

Thanks. Last night I put the battery on the charger as I need to drive it to the valuator on Thursday (for the insurance)
This morning the battery was fully charged, started the car and the ignition light went out and the ammeter shows its charging!

Decided to buy a new voltage regulator to put in the spares box just in case. An original Lucas is now in the car. Maybe the Prince of Darkness struck again!

 

An old battery with too much internal resistance can cause the regulator to not charge the battery.
A battery charger will over-come the resistance and things will work again, but it may just be temporary as the cars system tries to take over as the battery drains in the car.

The problem with Lucas wiring (that I see and have solved) are the bullet connectors.
They're plated with cadmium (I think) or something that oxidizes, turns white and powdery in severe cases and causes all sort of cold connections.
Cleaning (and soldering) the bullet itself and the female part solves the problems.
I like to use fine steel wool, or the product that Glyn uses; there are numerous products out there to do the job.

There are also connections that are not soldered, the bare copper wire is simply poked through the top of the bullet and pinches down its side, in my opinion this is a disaster of oxidization.
After cleaning the connections, use dielectric grease after the connection is made.
You may use conductive grease, but one has to be very carful not to get that stuff anywhere except where you want the connection to made.
It will cause a short if you get it all over.

 

I use these in my car with the Xenon upgrade lamp. Very nice people to deal with. I use the non pilot lamp version. They are for Germany only. I have a new set of sealed beams with the central Lucas circle should I need to tolerate the **** judges somewhere. Real candles.

Yes it might sound crazy to use a RHD supplier from the US but he carries LHD units as well so everything dips the right way. An arrow on the lens shows dip direction.

https://jollyrogersmotors.com/store/...-Pair-New.html

 

Although it came good I suspect there may be an intermittent problem with the generator/regulator system.
It would be worthwhile to check the generator brushes. Worn brushes lead to intermittent contact with the armature.
Just remove the rear cover on the generator and have a look.
The other suspect would be the regulator points but that is a little more complicated.
Also make sure the wires to the regulator are firmly fastened.( I once spent a couple of hours chasing an intermittent fault which turned out to be a loose wire)

 

I have the PAS so removing the back cover won’t be an easy task. I have ordered a spare regulator just in case. Maybe my battery is getting towards the end of its life. I will double check all the wiring.

 

A couple of hours!!!!!! You lucky Bar steward.
I had an intermittent electrical fault that stopped the S Type from starting but only when I was in a hurry to get somewhere. Then it would start and get half way there and just stop on me again. Whenever I had the time to sit down and try and work out where the fault was the car started first time every time. This went on for several weeks. I had changed the coil. Fuel pumps, plugs, HT Leads. Until I decided as a last resort to strip back the the engine wiring loom. I peeled the loom cover off going back from the coil towards the bulk head and eventually found a broken wire going to the coil about level with the rear carburettor. It was touching but obviously when it decided not to work there was no continuity and power was not getting to the coil.

 

You live in a much cooler climate Cass but that's why I replaced every harness in my car. A combination of the hot South African sun in Johannesburg & high under-bonnet temperatures had taken their toll on my harnesses. You've heard my story of my friend who lost his recently restored Mk2 to a fire with old harnesses and only 2 fuses protecting the car. Thank heaven it was adequately insured. My bonus of course was a totally rust free car.

 

That's unusual to happen in a loom, was there evidence of it chafing somewhere or being stretched _ or both ?

 

In the case of my car ~ as you know the harnesses are a combination of fabric insulation & plastics of the era. The fabric insulated wiring was fine. It was the old plastic formulation that failed. All the plasticiser had leached out and if you bent a harness wire the "dry" plastic would burst off of the wire.

 

Plastics technology has advanced a long way since the late 50's & 60's to today.

 

No signs of chaffing as it was inside the loom cover but I think it might have been as Glyn has suggested old plastic wiring which when I did the rebuild was taken back through the bulkhead into the cab where it was wrapped up for the respray. Maybe the wire was bent and the plastic had broken being brittle. I really don't know but as least I found it eventually. No other wires were damaged in that area so just bad luck.

 

Perhaps I might seem to be a lucky Bar Stuard but that is not the case. I completed a 5-year apprenticeship as a radio and radar technician in the old Australian Department of Civil Aviation in 1962
That taught me correct fault-finding techniques which have stuck with me today. In addition, I qualified as a Licenced Aircraft Maintenance Engineer for aircraft electrical and instruments around 1982.
I am not "crowing" so much as pointing out that it still took two hours with a multimeter and a methodical approach to isolate the fault.

 

The intermittent ones are the hard ones even with a multimeter. You can never trust the reading from one minute to the next.

 

Absolutely! I have a DB25 switching unit in my audio system. Every time you switch to another input it is switching 25 wires. My language would blister paint if it plays up which has fortunately not been often.

 

If Mr Lucas has supplied parts that have lasted 50 years, I think he has done a brilliant job.Alec G.

 

If Mr. Neanderthal made parts that lasted 40,000 years... well... good on him!

 

If only Mr Lucas had thought of making all his parts from natural products like Antler horns that he just found lying around at his feet. Not really a lot of production involved there with Antler horns. Flint required a bit more of thought and production by Neanderthals but not that much.