OT - Old British Cars

Remember when just about every car had the same Lucas Indicator. Dipswitch / Horn control crudely arrached to the steering column with a clamp?

I once had a Hillman Imp - it had a indicator stalk that was different - it was latched by a solenoid - which cot released by a switch on the column. First I had seen that had a bit of original design back in those days.

Reply to
DerbyBorn
Loading thread data ...

I remember the indicator switch being on the dashboard. It had an indicator bulb in the centre. I also remember the indicator arms that hinged out. Whoever thought that was the way to do it?

Bill

Reply to
Bill Wright

Many years ago when I was working for my Dad, a customer came in, having been recommended by our spares shop. He was an ex-pat American (married to a Brit), and having been in the US engineer corps fancied himself as a motor mechanic. He had offered to fix his neighbours car, which needed new points. We fitted the points and gapped them (the bit he wasn't sure of ?????).

We got chatting, and he commented that having been stationed all over the world, his rule was to always buy a car that was made in the country he was stationed in - hence unlike his neighbour who had the FIAT - he ran Austins and Rovers in the UK. He then added it was the only time he'd had problems, in the 1970s, when Lucas were on strike for 6 months, and his car was off the road with a smashed headlamp.

So *that's* the 1970s UKIP hark back to ??????

Reply to
Jethro_uk

In the 70s remember having an old Land Rover. I could not buy a bracket for the exhaust pipe because the factory was on strike. Fortunately it was a part I could bodge. I never bought another British made vehicle.

Reply to
Michael Chare

Not really. Since not every UK maker used Lucas anyway. Some BL cars did indeed share this stalk, though. First cars I was aware of had a horn button or ring on the steering wheel, and a floor mounted dip switch. Interesting that many car have gone back to the steering wheel horn push these days, rather than it being on a stalk.

Some cars had a timer for the indicators. Although a mechanical self cancelling mechanism triggered by the steering column was more usual. Perhaps the stalk on the Imp was too far away from the column to use this simple method.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

I'd be utterly amazed if no dealer in the UK had stock of that headlamp. Most large dealers kept a stock of the common bits like that - you couldn't really get next day delivery in those days. So it sounds like his garage didn't much care. That is one thing that hasn't changed. ;-)

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Trafficators were a great idea - in the early days when drivers still expected to see hand signals out of the window, the trafficator combined similar movement with a nice modern amber light. The fact that they were dim and got stuck was a problem with the implementation not the concept. :-)

Reply to
Rob Morley

UK who? ;-)

formatting link

It's reassuring to think that such a well organised and tight machine helped steer us towards the rocks before abandoning ship likes rats and it looks like they are still pouring off! ;-(

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

Everyone, until some time in the fifties.

Reply to
Roger Hayter

IT was in the Speedo binnacle.

Reply to
DerbyBorn

Semaphore signals date back to the early part of the 20th century, before most cars had electric lighting.

Flashing indicators were patented in 1938.

Reply to
Nightjar

I remember stopping an elderly lady to tell her a side light was flashing!

>
Reply to
Tim Lamb

Semaphore indicators Minor 1000.

In France the had similar that used to waggle up and down.

Reply to
harry

I bought a Cortina in 1971. The dipping relay failed with the car about 13 months old- since this happened on a Saturday evening coming home from work and I needed to use the car on Sunday to get to and from work, I managed to take the relay apart - a Lucas product - and rebuild it. I considered this a temporary measure and bought a new one from a Ford dealer. The spare ones were made by Bosch. Actually, I never used the new one, my repair lasted for at least 11 years.

Reply to
charles

Even uncommon parts - my first car a 1953 Ford Prefect (sit up and beg) acquired in 1969 - local small Ford garage produced a 4 bladed version of the cooling radiator fan as fitted in "Hot" countries from stock. At the time I nively didnt think this was unusual.

Reply to
Robert

My car has a floor dip switch and floor horn button.

Reply to
harry

I went round the Jaguar works in Coventry in 1956 or 57. They had fitted winkers and were possibly one of the first maufacturers to do so. The reason was that at sort of speeds their cars went, ssemaphone arms would be jammed by air pressure.

Reply to
charles

Was that the Mark I Imp, where the indicator and wiper (?) control stalks were 90-degree arms that came out the speedo cluster of dials, with rubber gaiters around them, as opposed to the Mark II which had a row of large circular dials with brushed-aluminium surrounds - and an conventional indicator that came out of the steering column.

I hadn't realised that the Imp latched with a solenoid. Presumably it made it very difficult to cancel a wrongly-applied signal (eg you knocked the stalk) unless you actually turned the wheel to operate the solenoid release.

Reply to
NY

That was fairly normal for 1950s and early 1960s cars. I think the Consul (pre-Aeroflow) Cortina had flashing white sidelights and red tail lights, until this practice was banned in an update to Constructions and Use (mid-60s?), and all cars from then on had to have flashing *amber* lights.

Reply to
NY

That rings bells. Used to drive an Imp many years ago. Great fun.

However, with so many cars having adjustable steering wheel postition, maybe not such a good idea now.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.