Triumph Spitfire Weber-carb throttle cable adapter.

[JM329]

LOL. Now I can’t imagine what kind of hoops you’d have to jump through to get it to work on 6cyl, unless it was rig up 2 of those Weber’s. The ones I’m familiar with were meant for 4cyl. Most tried to put them on VW’s. The one I’d had someone gave me after he gave up. It sat in a box for years before the silly stock Datsun carb wore out and I put the Weber on it. It helped we had a smog machine and I could see directly what the problem was

it was horrible on the straight 6. But the 4 barrel upgrade was great. it was better than the chevy small blocks a lot of guys used. It was twenty years ago i just took screenshots off the web. I was cracking up when i saw this though. The old man across the street thought a bomb went off.

 

[C-Bag]

Geez I’ve not seen one of those Weber’s since I traded in my ‘76 Datsun PU in ‘82. It was hilarious that the sales manager drove that PU in order to see if it was even worth trading in and he was floored it ran so good. It was bought by one of the mechanics before we even closed the deal on the new PU.

 

[matthewsx]

I had a Triumph Herald and a TR4 with the Surrey Top.

Gone now

 

[MrWhoopee]

I loved it but did not have enough money or skill to keep it reliable so I had to sell it.

This ^^^^
I was told by an independent Jaguar mechanic that people could afford to buy them but couldn't afford to keep them running.

My first car was a '51 Riley Drophead Coupe. A little old lady ran a stop sign and totalled it for me. Dad paid $800 for it and sold it for $1k after it was wrecked. I believe this may be the same car. It didn't look nearly this good when I had it, but I know this is the color scheme that was chosen when it was restored a couple of decades later. The owner tracked me down because I was the last registered owner.

It had 2 Lucas fuel pumps, one in the engine compartment and one back by the gas tank. Good planning.

I started drooling over a Jag XK-120 for $1200. My dad called his partner in crime and I got a $350 '59 MGA instead. That car taught me a lot, primarily to avoid English cars.

Lucas: Prince of Darkness

The English drink warm beer because they have Lucas refrigerators.

I lost a friend when a tie-rod broke on his Spitfire at highway speed. It flipped end over end 3 times.

 

[C-Bag]

This ^^^^
I was told by an independent Jaguar mechanic that people could afford to buy them but couldn't afford to keep them running.

My first car was a '51 Riley Drophead Coupe. A little old lady ran a stop sign and totalled it for me. Dad paid $800 for it and sold it for $1k after it was wrecked. I believe this may be the same car. It didn't look nearly this good when I had it, but I know this is the color scheme that was chosen when it was restored a couple of decades later. The owner tracked me down because I was the last registered owner.
View attachment 375929
It had 2 Lucas fuel pumps, one in the engine compartment and one back by the gas tank. Good planning.

I started drooling over a Jag XK-120 for $1200. My dad called his partner in crime and I got a $350 '59 MGA instead. That car taught me a lot, primarily to avoid English cars.

Lucas: Prince of Darkness

The English drink warm beer because they have Lucas refrigerators.

I lost a friend when a tie-rod broke on his Spitfire at highway speed. It flipped end over end 3 times.

Man, seldom do you go through all the emotions in one post. I jones’d, I doubly laughed and ended up with

BTW I lost my first car, a ‘57 Karmann Ghia to an old lady plowing into the back of me. We had to fight to get the insurance to give us $450( they first offered $75!). I never hardly ever heard my dad get mad but you could have fried an egg on his forehead when he was dealing with the insurance idiots. That ‘57 would be worth big $$ now.

 

[brino]

The replacement carb had a 'clamp-on-wire' style throttle cable adapter, which required 'cutting' the ferrule off the end of the throttle cable. We ordered a new throttle cable (thanks to some pretty terrible damage to it), plus a new carb (due to a failed rebuild attempt!).

However, I couldn't bring myself to cutting the new throttle cable. Instead, I went to the machine shop!

Erich great photo-documentary, thanks for bringing us all along!
-brino

 

[Bob Korves]

"Lucas, the prince of darkness..." is how we spoke of their electrical stuff back in the day. A buddy of mine made me a deal on a MGB hulk (no engine or interior) and any parts he had laying around (which was essentially a mini wrecking yard) for $300. He said I was paying for the chrome spoke wheels, the rest was thrown in for free. I bought essentially nothing besides paint and 2 seats for the restoration. I was young and poor but was able to get it running well and looking decent with new paint and TLC, and drove it for more than 10 years before selling it for $1500. I had essentially no trouble with the car while I owned it...

 

[RandyWilson]

As a long time mechanic of things British stretching from when they were new to well into the restoration years, I am baffled by the continuing myths and dogma taken as outright fact. Most all of these things can be traced back to people that do not know the car, do not understand the car, and try to treat it as a 1963 Chevy.

There is nothing really wrong with Lucas electrics. They were used the world over by many manufatures, including American brands. But blamed they were.... often for things that aren't even theirs. As an example, the Spitfire line, from 1962 through 1980, only used Lucas equipment the very last few years. For most of the run, they used a mixture of Delco for engine stuff, and Clearhooter for switch gear. Yes, "Clearhooter".

People would remove the extremely simple and efficient CD carb, mount up a 32/36 Weber from a German Ford of twice the displacement... on an unheated upswept manifold, and wonder why it bogged, stumbled, and got terrible mileage. then they would smugly blame it on Lucas.

 

[Bob Korves]

As a long time mechanic of things British stretching from when they were new to well into the restoration years, I am baffled by the continuing myths and dogma taken as outright fact. Most all of these things can be traced back to people that do not know the car, do not understand the car, and try to treat it as a 1963 Chevy.

There is nothing really wrong with Lucas electrics. They were used the world over by many manufatures, including American brands. But blamed they were.... often for things that aren't even theirs. As an example, the Spitfire line, from 1962 through 1980, only used Lucas equipment the very last few years. For most of the run, they used a mixture of Delco for engine stuff, and Clearhooter for switch gear. Yes, "Clearhooter".

People would remove the extremely simple and efficient CD carb, mount up a 32/36 Weber from a German Ford of twice the displacement... on an unheated upswept manifold, and wonder why it bogged, stumbled, and got terrible mileage. then they would smugly blame it on Lucas.

I actually totally agree with you. I never had any problem with Lucas products more than with Delco or others. In fact, I do not think I ever had a problem with Lucas parts they were decent quality. The other issue was the fact that British cars were wired with return grounds for everything, instead of using the chassis for the ground, an approach which IMPROVES the electrical system. It was just the times. It was not made in America, and so it must be inferior, an attitude that has often been proven wrong. Let me tell you about my Chevrolet Corvair...

 

[matthewsx]

I also didn’t have any excessive problems with Lucas electrics on my Triumphs.

The strangest one I had was on a Datsun that I finally figured out was corrosion behind the fuse block.

John