Hi All,
Well, for those interested, I raised my Healey on jack stands and got under to use brake cleaner on the clutch. This was not as simple as thought at first since the head of the rivet in the bell housing drip hole was too large to get the thin tube of the pressurized can of cleaner past. Also, my suspicions were confirmed and removing the cover plate around the shift fork would not gain sufficient forward access and be solidly blocked by the diaphragm cover.
However, I had forgotten the round hole at the back of the fork mounting that did allow access into the bell housing and through some openings of the diaphragm cover. However, although the car is still on the stands and untested, I believe the brake cleaner never was effective in cleaning the clutch and the stream of cleaner would have, at best, hit the pressure plate and not the clutch face.
Yes, I expected this would be the result of this activity, however, even a slight chance was worth the cost of the can of brake cleaner and allowed me to grease all maintenance components on the chance the clutch/Healey got well on its own.
Tomorrow, I will take the car for a short drive and see if anything has changed.
All the best,
Ray(64BJ8P1)