Re: Healey 3000 Distributer Cap
I had three side-entry caps. All identical in terms of the necessity of removing the carbon bit to reach the screw. I replaced the cap when I bought the car about five years ago without incident, though I was unfamiliar with side-entry caps and the screws. It was almost surely a Moss cap. The next two were also Moss caps. All three caps developed spider cracks on the inside, likely due to my efforts to remove the carbon bit. I think slapping them on the bench, as suggested by one forum respondent, is fatal to the integrity of the caps. When the cap is struck on a flat surface, I believe the force accelerates the brass bits cast inside the cap and creates spider cracks. I just ruined a newly delivered Moss cap in this manner. For whatever reason, I have to remove a bit of plastic from the notch where the fender-side cap attachment spring fits. I've had to do this on all of the caps I've owned to get that spring engaged. So, I did this with the new cap and somehow managed to push the carbon bit into its hole without noticing I had done that. I then probably caused many spider cracks inside the cap by tapping it on the bench. I won't do this on the next cap, and I intend to buy a backup cap from the UK source Steve G mentioned in response to my jabber. I did solve the carbon bit removal task, suction, etc., having failed. I identified a number drill, 7 or 8, as I recall that just fits the carbon bit hole. Holding it by hand and pressing it on the tip of the carbon bit, I trimmed out just enough material to free the carbon bit. Alas, I had already damaged the cap. This all came about as I was installing Lucas ignition wire set. Noting you are in Cleveland, I bought my first Austin Healey from a U of Cincinnati law student living in Cleveland Heights in the summer of 1963. I was at that time working as a reporter on the Painesville Telegraph. I'm from Norwalk, and my best friend was a classmate of the guy I bough the Healey from and had actually ridden in it in Cincinnati. The car was set up for drag racing, with a toggle for the overdrive on the shift lever and cutouts on the exhaust pipes ahead of the muffler. A pregnant wife spelled forced me to sell the Healey while I was working for a newspaper in Dayton. Like so many old guys, I had to relive the early car experience by buying another Healey.