Lucas, Prince of Darkness.

[Lewis]

I am a gradually evolving Luddite. Born at he height of the Battle of Britain, I prefer much older motor cars to the plastic dipped jelly moulds we drive today. I own the HRG Bristol, a 1948 (?) experimental chassis built for the 2 litre Bristol engine. Until HRG realised that everyone was using the very sporting Bristol engine for racing and stopped the project after a Bristol engine had been dropped into the first and only rolling chassis. HRG already had a quietly successful sports car. The bits ended up with a cousin and sat in a shed on his sheep property in New South Wales for at least 40 years.

End of boring preamble. Point is: problems with antique engine bits and pieces. My Lucas voltage regulator, c. 1948, recently stopped regulating.

After much prodding and poking and adjusting of gaps Vic Grayson, a Geelong contemporary with the engine, found one of the metal strips at the rear of the unit, whatever they are - but they conduct electricity- had fractured. Vic had to scrape off half a century of dirt and corrosion to spot the crack. A few dollops of soldar and the electrics worked again. So have
a look at the back of your ancient voltage regulators and scratch off the crap
of ages.

Lewis.

[RGSchmitt]

Lewis -

Nice story about your regulator. One lesson - these can be fixed, as
opposed to the "normal" practice of yanking and replacing. My
regulator packed up in my Frazer Nash's first long drive in 40+
years, from Invercargill to Christchurch. The 9 pm interruption was
cured with a fresh battery, but the regulator was repaired/adjusted
by a young technician in Temuka the next day and has been fine ever since.

I never found out if I have a 2-pole or 3-pole regulator, which I
recall as part of the repair discussion.

Bob

[Ashley James]

Many of these parts are still available new and not terribly expensive, if you ever need a replacement regulator it's always worth contacting Tim Hodgekiss of www.vintagemotorspares.com He is a really nice bloke too.

I've just discovered this Forum and am delighted to do so, it's more straightforward than the alternatives and I shan't be sad to see the back of a Yahoo account and the baggage that goes with it.

I've a '49 400 Bristol that I've completely rebuilt, every tiny bit of it and I run www.jel450.com as well as www.kda132.com if anyone is interested.

Ashley

[Nick Challacombe]

Lewis,
An alternative to Ashley's solution is Holden Vintage and Classic.
They have a huge on line catalogue of electrical parts including Bristol
early regulators RF95
Not cheap at £95.00 but at least on the shelf.
They are to be found at www.holden.co.uk , no relation or interest etc.

Ashley's web sites are a delight and a mine of information even for an
8 cylinder guy like me.

[Ashley James]

Holden are about three times the price of Tim, hence my
recommendation!

[Nick Challacombe]

Sorry Ashley,
I did not know you had priced the item, I had no way of knowing.
Anyway, as I said, it was an alternative to your suggestion, not a
replacement. All knowledge is helpful especially if complete.

[Ashley James]

Absolutely and Holdens have an amazing catalogue, far more than Tim
but they are pricey. I don't know how he manages such low prices.
Ash