On Sep 8, 4:30 am, "Dave Plowman (News)" wrote:
In article . com,
Bret Ludwig wrote:

Lucas ones of course required periodic lubrication - but if this was
done had a decent enough service life.
Oh, they'd last longer than you wanted them. The coils would fail,
the points would shift and lose time-Mallory did a land office
business in aftermarket ones for all BL products that took Ford parts
as I recall.

All points 'shift'. If they didn't there'd be no adjustment provided.
As regards Mallory I recently fitted a Unilite to my Rover V-8 to replace
the high mileage DLM8 Lucas having been assured I'd notice a vast
improvement. And there was none. Of course if you have a modified engine
the ability to easily alter the advance curve would be useful. But mine is
standard.



Or indeed the need to change from SU carbs.
he SU isn't that bad but needs constant maintenance.

Because they are adjustable and most carbs ain't plenty felt the need
to fiddle with them. Usually while not having clue as to how to set
them correctly. The only maintenance they needed was topping up the
piston damper at engine oil change times.

The SU is quite expensive over here, probably over there now too,

As is the Mallory. I imported direct and got it for half the UK price.
Fact of life with some imports.

and they never really had any aftermarket support over here-right or
wrong, the trend was to get away from them.

All spares were and are readily available in the UK. Burlen Fuel Systems
now make them (and fuel pumps) and have good stocks even for older models.
Of course not cheap being no longer mass produced.

I suppose they aren't all
that bad. But Webers if correctly sized and set up are the best carb
anywhere for most anything. Eduaardo Weber SpA had the carb thing
down. The best US one was usually a Holley: I loathed and hated
Rochesters.

The snag with the DCOE Webers and similar designs is the poor atomisation
at low flow rates - ie low engine speeds. It can also be near impossible
to get smooth progression. The SU alters the venturie size to keep
relative airflow speed high to aid atomisation. The downside of this is
you can't make such a clear flow path at maximum power. But for road cars
it's a good compromise. Other ways of course are twin choke designs with a
small and large venturie - but these aren't known for long reliable
service life. Other thing with fixed jet carb is there is no compensation
for the inevitable wear - an SU unless bodged or neglected can be adjusted
as needed.

90% of carbs on the US road anymore, if not 95% are four barrel
Holleys with progressive operation, two small and two large. Most are
on 60s-80s V8s. But where people were converting 80s cars with TBI to
carb ten years ago, now we are seeing EFI on everything from old
Beetles to flathead Ford V8s. You have to realize that at least in
these parts the easy availablity of credit and $100/hr shop charges
have denuded the US roads of cars older than ten or fifteen years.
Last time I was in England the numbers of old cars I saw vastly
exceeded what I have seen anywhere in the US, except for a couple of
college towns and parts of Los Angeles.

Of course, we are going to see a massive credit implosion.....but
that's another matter.