Awesome Healey

After buying the car in Jan 2006, the 1st order of business was to assess the car as a whole and come up with a plan.

It ran and drove,.... but it did not stop. No Brakes, except for the hand brake.

So stage one was easy.

All the brakes, brake hydraulics, hoses, and clutch hydraulics were replaced.

I also refinished the wheels and the brake drums.

We also took the radiator out and had it cleaned at a radiator shop.

This work was done in Tallahassee.

I have pictures some where, but I cant find them right now.

When I do Ill add them here.

I did find one picture that was taken in Feb 2006, after the wheel, tire, brake and clutch work was done.

Note the new (used) grille. The emblem was original to the car, it was found in the boxes of stuff that came with the car.

Later that year, in September, my wife and I bought a house.

Now it was game on, I could take on larger Healey tasks here.

That's when we moved to the reliability list.

The wiring was the original cloth covered, shellac sealed, aluminum wiring from 1957.

Time to really take stuff apart!

It was basically one big cigarette ash. You could not touch it, with out it just falling apart and blowing away.

So, every harness was replaced.

Light sockets were repaired.

The ignition was upgraded to a pertronix igniter and coil. (The original lucas coil was still doing fine with a date code of 11/57)

Instruments were cleaned.

And since the heater box had to come out, it was overhauld with a new valve, hoses, and control panel and knobs.

And as a last note, here you can see the brake drum and new brake hose work from the months previous.

Question:

You are located in Florida.

Healeys are known to be pretty much self-propelled ovens for baking humans from below while the sun broils them to a crisp from above.

How do you reconcile these facts? Have you found a method to keep drivetrain heat out of the cabin that actually works?

In reply to NOHOME :

Yes, I am in Florida.

I struggled with heat issues for a few years, and I learned a few things.

Aside from the basics of no leaks, good belt, good tune up, good coolant, etc..

1. Make sure the radiator is in good shape. Free flow for both air and water.

2. Healeys require a special radiator cap. American caps aren't as tall, and do not exert enough sealing pressure on the inner seal inside the neck. The OEM tall 7lb cap is what you want. This is VERY OFTEN overlooked.

MOSS 583-004 7lb Cap

3. Run the "Texas Cooler" 5 blade fan.

MOSS 834-887 radiator fan

4. You must use a proper bellows thermostat with a moving blanking sleeve OR and American wax poppet thermostat with a drilled bypass blanking sleeve insert, or no thermostat with the same drilled sleeve insert. Note that the key is the blanking sleeve.  If you do not have one in play, the water pump will bypass too much water past the radiator. THIS IS KEY. 

MOSS 434-156 Bellows tstat $129.99 (great for the winter if you want the heater to be effective.

MOSS 434-180 160 deg tstat MUST use with blanking sleeve

MOSS 434-135 Bypass Blanking Sleeve

5. Make sure that the air deflectors are properly installed in front of the radiator.

6. Check your dash gauge with a temperature gun on the radiator tank. You can calibrate the offset on the gauge by pulling the needle off and resetting it to match the actual reading. Its a scary thing to do. Be brave, lol....

7. Check your water pump fins and vigorously flush the head with a hose while the pump is off. It is the ONLY way to clean the cooling system. I actually had a debris dam behind the pump.

8. To help with keeping the passenger compartment cooler, turn the heater off, under the hood at the head. There is a valve there.

My Healey can sit in traffic all day long in July now. It can be done!

Tonight I was looking at the old paperwork and receipts that came with the car.

Specifically a series of service station receipts from the summer of '71, as they are the oldest documents I have with the car.

I noticed the odometer reading was the same on all 3, 40105 miles. That number sounded oddly familiar.

Yep. That odometer has probably been broken since I was born... (Feb '71).

Time to dig in.... 

In reply to a_florida_man :

Thanks for reminding me that you're older than me (slightly but older is older).

So I have always, of course known that the odometer didn't work, but i had never opened it up to see why.

After some internet sleuthing and contemplation, I dove in.

This speedometer uses two odometer drives, one for the trip odometer and one for the regular odometer.

Both odometer gear shafts were stuck in place by old grease and a small amount of corrosion, causing the plastic gears to strip.

So, as it turns out, the two gears appear to be in reproduction. Looks like for Smiths speedometers there are classically 3 gears, a 20, a 25, and a 32.

Mine is a 25.

The second issue with the speedometer is that it is about 15% faster than reality.

My tires are pretty dang close to the right diameter, and although these speedometers were known to be off by up to 10% brand new.... I think a good cleaning will help bring it back closer in line.

You can see a lot of black grease on the input shaft of the mechanism, and it is from way too much cable lube. Supposedly this impacts the friction relationship between the magnetic and needle plates, causing them to read too high.

Can't loose at this point!

In reply to Stampie :

Younger AND cooler.

No wonder I can't compete.... :)

In reply to a_florida_man :

I don't drive a AH 100-6 so not so sure about the cooler part.

In reply to Stampie :

Suprang will get you there.... trust me. 

What projects do you have laying around these days, I heard the count was climbing... lol.

In reply to a_florida_man :

No more climbing.  Need me to delivery a few to you?  We have some freebies available.

Stampie said:

In reply to a_florida_man :

No more climbing.  Need me to delivery a few to you?  We have some freebies available.

That's like offering a drunk, a drink... lol...

Whatch got? lol

email me if u want   kflavinATwindstreamDOTnet

In reply to a_florida_man :

I'll text you tomorrow.

Parts....everything BUT the clutch kit. Oh well... soon.

I also got a cool gizmo to count revolutions.

I'll use this and a variable speed drill to calibrate the speedometer.

I love Amazon.

The speedo face has the calibration rpm for 60 mph. 1325 RPM at the speedo cable should give 60 mph on the gauge.

Also, for posterity, I ordered the odometer gears from here:

https://www.odometergears.com/products/Smiths-Jaeger/All/38

not cheap but they look to be just the right thing.

AxeHealey said:

stafford1500 said:

Good to see you writing this one up.

Same! As I think we've covered, I can relate to your love of your particular Healey in the same way. Ours has been in the family longer than I have. 

Interesting. for me Austin Healeys were in my family before I was as well, just not this one.

There was a '59

BN4L-O-75727 

and a '63 (full vin unknown)

Mark II, SN 20130 - Probably BJ7L-20130 - I think they started leaving the O for Overdrive off.

They were both long gone way before I came along.

However, there was this service manual that I suspect dad bought in '62 or '63.

That manual has been here all along.

When I was young, very young, about the age of 3, it was noted that I was VERY good at identifying car brands  (Chevy, Ford, Dodge) at night.

Better than my parents. Odd thing I suppose, and unfortunately my super powers pretty much petered out with that one thing...

However, as time went by I found I REALLY liked looking at old Chilton manuals in the front sections where cars were drawn to identify them by years.

I was always intrigued by the detail drawings and the subtle differences of the front ends of cars, and how they changed with time.

It wasn't long before I had a few of my own manuals, and I graduated from studying the shapes of the cars to learning the parts.

All along, as my interests in all things mechanical grew, Dad would tell a story here and there about driving somewhere in an Austin Healey, or an XKE, or his '66 Corvette roadster..... etc.

I was really getting indoctrinated!

About the time I was 10, or maybe 12, somewhere in there, dad and I were at my grandmother's house (his mom) and while doing a repair to the house, he found the Austin Healey manual in an obscure, nearly lost little nook where it had gotten pushed off into years previous.

I was absolutely consumed by this book.

There was no internet. There was no other way to learn about these Austin Healeys that I had heard so much about. Corvettes, XKE Jaguars, sure they were in books and bookstores... but no Healeys. Now I had the bible for Austin Healey. I think I nearly memorized every page.

The drawings were so detailed and precise.... 

Even the smallest of assemblies were there.....

Even the "photographs" were retouched to add detail.

So... in many ways while there wasn't a car in the garage, we had a Healey all along.

Also, for posterity, if anyone ever finds a certain 1964 XKE coupe s/n 888909, or a 1966 Corvette Convertible 194676S108994, please drop me a line.... :)

twentyover said:

Think I may have some 15 x 5.5 sold by Moss out in the shed. If I do, I can tell you the chrome on the spline WILL be rusty. let me know if interested, I'll go out and check

Any luck on the wheels? Thanks!

Getting closer

I ordered a set of these knock off hub adapters for my tire balancer tonight.

Anyone ever use them?

You can learn more about them here (I got mine from Moss Motors):

http://smoothridecones.co.uk/

Got  to admit I had done this on occasion... it is not optimal lol...