The overdrive on my trusty BT7 decided to act up the other day, dropping the
O/D in and out. After a bit of troubleshooting with a voltmeter, I
determined that the O/D relay was defective. But---yuk--$200 for a
replacement! No way, Jose.
I pulled the Lucas relay from the car and opened it up on the bench. This is
very easy to do; just peel back the tabs. Sure enough, the contacts were
almost totally disintegrated, and the coil was open.
So, I drilled out the retaining rivet and discarded the remains of the
original innards. I then cleaned up the enclosure and buffed clean the
external screw contacts.
Next I located a miniature 12V 30A relay (the one I scrounged was from a
BMW). These mini automotive relays are quite common.
I removed the case from the mini relay, in order to make it smaller. I then
lined the innards of the original enclosure with electrical insulating paper
(often called fish paper), and installed the new relay inside the original
Lucas enclosure, holding it in place with a large locknut-type solder
terminal that's affixed to the W2 terminal.
The new relay works like a champ, pulling in my solenoid nicely. Back in
business for less than $5.
== Alex in Maine
"The Blue Mainie," 1960 Austin Healey 3000 BT7
"Conkling," 1946 MG TC #1321
Former owner 1957 A-H 100-6, 1967 A-H BJ8,
1965 MG Midget
http://home.roadrunner.com/~alexmm
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