New Owner Chronicles Part 1: Interior Bits

[SpacerM]

The BJ8 finally showed up in New York, courtesy of Horseless Carriage (who did a fantastic job and picked up the slack after InterCity dropped the ball and cancelled a pickup on less than 24 hours notice and after charging my card). Thanks again to all in helping me sort out the best way to get the car halfway across the US.
The car runs well, but clearly hasn’t been fussed over and I am in the process of finding a good mechanic on Long Island who properly understands the British classics to go over things and make sure all is generally in good running order.
She seems largely original to me- clearly a recent respray, as she came from the factory with a white exterior and is now Healey Blue with white coves, but the black interior seems original (save the carpet), as does the distributor, original oil filter, and all the other under the hood bits.
As I will be handing the engine compartment over to a mechanic, I’ve focused on the interior for now- many loose screws, dials twisted in the dash, etc. I also performed the dreaded strip down to completely loosen the dash and remove the RPM gauge in order to get behind the choke cable and (hopefully) permanently seat the lock nut so the choke does not come halfway out the dash each and every time it is pulled. Now on to the areas where I’m lacking proper insight:
I had a blown bulb in the highbeams warning light and pulled the tube from the back of the speedo. In reseating it, the light was strangely not coming through to the blue lens, and after pulling the speedo, I noticed a white rubber piece buried in speedo that was blocking the light- can I pull this off with impunity or does it serve a vital function? I don’t want to disassemble the speedo and it seems this white gasket was bent over in time and is no longer doing its job. Seems I’d best just pull it, but maybe that’s a bad idea. While I had the gauges out, I also replaced the o-rings between the bezel and the dash which were cracked.
Trafficator is next. It functions to activate the lights but does not hold either to the left or right. I’m hoping someone installed the plates upside down, but once the new moto-lita arrives I will take it apart and find out.
I also spent a good deal of time tracing a problem where the car had no high beams. Low beams were fine. I had power coming off the dash switch to the blue wire, and pulling the plugs and jumping the wire connectors connectors at the floor dip switch did not activate the highbeams, so it is not a dip switch issue. I was ready to start crawling through the hood tracing the wires when I decided to tackle the choke issue, above. After completely reassembling the dash the high beams now work, which leads me to believe I have a short somewhere under the dash, yet I didn’t touch a blue wire (at least I don’t think I did). I’m not confident that the highbeams will stay “fixed” so if anybody has any ideas on where I should look for the problem, I’d love to hear it.
Finally, the seat pans are nearly completely rusted out and hopefully I will be able to replace them while reusing the original vinyl, or I will likely leave them to rot, as I have no interest in reupholstering the interior. Don’t love all the orange fleck on the nice black carpet, however. My question is right now the driver’s seat sits very loosely in the frame, and slides out to the front nearly every time I enter the car- is there some retaining system I can replace, or are the seat bottoms supposed to simply rest in the frames?

I’m sure that’s quite enough for now- appreciate any and all advices.

 

[bighealeysource]

Hey SpacerM,
Congrats and know you are thrilled to have the ole' gal in your garage. I won't address the electrical issues as that is surely not my area of expertise-understatement for sure. But, it would be very easy for you to fix your seat bottoms and replace the seat pans. One, they do simply sit in the frame but if the seat pan is so badly rusted, would not sit right and probably easily move around. Pull your seat bottom and look at the way the ambla vinyl cover is attached. Should be with metal clips that are tapped onto the edge of the metal pan. You can pretty easily remove those with needle nose pliers and maybe a small screw driver to get them started. Then you can remove the seat cover from the pan. It will be attached with glue to the seat foam only under the pleated portion in the middle of the seat. If your foam is still okay, do not remove from the foam. If not carefully pull the vinyl away from the foam. You can get new seat pans from Moss Motors, probably within two days from their Richmond warehouse. There are other sources but Moss does a great job. Paint the new seat bottom black and if you do not have to use new seat foam, really easy to install the existing seat cover onto the new seat pan. You can get new clips from Moss and would suggest as others must be rusted by now. Even if you have to put in new foam, not difficult and can e-mail you additional info on best way to glue the cover onto the foam. Know this sounds like a lot but one of the easiest jobs to do in the interior and will save your seats. Seat backs are a completely different story and difficult but that's another whole story and sounds like you are okay there.
Good luck,
Mike

 

[Bob_Spidell]

... Now on to the areas where I’m lacking proper insight:
I had a blown bulb in the highbeams warning light and pulled the tube from the back of the speedo. In reseating it, the light was strangely not coming through to the blue lens, and after pulling the speedo, I noticed a white rubber piece buried in speedo that was blocking the light- can I pull this off with impunity or does it serve a vital function? I don’t want to disassemble the speedo and it seems this white gasket was bent over in time and is no longer doing its job. Seems I’d best just pull it, but maybe that’s a bad idea. ...

In a Healey (Smiths) speedometer there is a tapered tube that channels light from the high beam indicator light on the back of the case to the blue plastic lens on the dial. The white rubber piece is a small sleeve that completes the last part of the tube and wraps the lens. It's probably collapsed and blocking the light from the bulb (if the bulb's being lit). You can remove it; the only downside will likely be light bleeding about the dial from the high beam bulb and the blue lens--never very bright anyway--may be (even more) difficult to distinguish when lit.

If you ever tear into the speedo you can replace this sleeve; I did with a small piece of heat-shrink tubing, but rubber is probably better.

 

[SpacerM]

Thanks, Mike, already have the Moss catalog, and will talk to my employer about setting up direct transfers as it seems that Moss will likely be getting a significant chunk of each monthly paycheck! Good to know the seats will not be a difficult undertaking and I'm going to go ahead and order the parts and tackle it after I get the trafficator operational again.
Bob, good to know its not just me who think the bulbs are too dim- that's no doubt part of my problem.

 

[HealeyRick]

How about some pics of the new acquisition?

 

[SpacerM]

As requested, here she is- I assume by what I'm reading here that the seat pattern is wrong and this is likely a repo interior? If its original, I'm not going to touch it, but if its already been redone, then I'm likely to tinker......

 

[tahoe healey]

Seats are fine and look original. The interior, rear side walls should have a pattern of crossed lines.

 

[glemon]

Welcome to the world of Healey ownership, there is a great article about trafficators on John Sim's Healey6 website:

https://www.healey6.com

https://www.healey6.com/Technical/Trafficator%20Repairs.pdf

As well as lots of other good technical information.

As far as the brights working now and not before, probably something got knocked about while you were under the dash, I would start by pulling the wires in the bright circuit out of their bullet connectors and clean the connections for starters, followed by some dielectric grease for future protection, also check the connections at the switch.

Good luck!

 

[bob hughes]

Seats slipping out of the frames.

I had that problem until recently.

Stripped off the covers and threw away the foams as they were shot. The seat pans had rusted badly in several areas. As my grand plans involve replacing the seats totally, I set about repairing the existing. The metal is thin to start with and was obviously thinner in the rusted areas, I replaced the front corners where required and reinforced the bases as they were both split. The edges came in for some treatment as well. I used some aluminium to take the heat away in the welding process to save burning through, all in all it worked well. Put in new foam and recovered and now there are no slippage problems.



Bob

 

[HealeyRick]

As requested, here she is- I assume by what I'm reading here that the seat pattern is wrong and this is likely a repo interior? If its original, I'm not going to touch it, but if its already been redone, then I'm likely to tinker......

Looks very nice, congrats! Here's some interior pics showing the square pattern on the rear quarters:

 

[Barefoot]

Seats look original. Steering wheel, not so much.

 

[SpacerM]

Thanks, guys. I agree that the steering wheel has to go, and my replacement direct from Moto Lita is currently in a UPS facility in Germany, awaiting customs clearance. Decided to go with the classic wood, rather than the original design. When I pullet apart to replace the steering wheel I'll tackle the trafficator at the same time- I read the articles and see that this is likely to take a few attempts to get right, but looks like a good project. Worse comes to worse, I'm out $300 for a new one.

As to the interior, it looks like the sides definitely aren't original as there is no square pattern, but the back is:

The driver's seat pan is a bigger problem, as it is shot and so is the foam. However, I'm 6'4" and with the compacted seat foam I fit nicely in the car- I'm worried that if I replace the foam, I'll be eye level with the windshield chrome. I read some mixed comments here about cutting off the bottom of the foam, some saying that it messes up the fit of the covers, others thinking its fine. I'm contemplating just replacing the pan and leaving the deteriorating foam, but then I'm likely to be redoing this again in a few years. Decisions, decisions.........

 

[bighealeysource]

Hey SpacerM,
You can reduce the density of the new seat foams by carefully taking a small hole saw (kind you use with a drill) and cutting some round holes into the foam. Try sitting on it first with your new seat pans and see how you sit compared to the old foam - might be okay. The cutting of holes is from Norman Nock's Tech Talk book which I would highly recommend getting from his company in Stockton, CA,British Car Specialists (www.BritishCarSpecialists.com). Has hundreds of great articles and tips from his years contributing to the club magazines. Norman passed away a few years ago and was a prince of a guy, still missed. His son David now runs the company and he too will help out on the phone if you call him. Like you I am on the east coast so chances of actually taking my Healey into David is non existent.

As to the back side panels, you can buy those only from AH Spares in UK without having to buy the entire seat panel set.
Have fun,
Mike

www.ahspares.co.uk

 

[HealeyRick]

The driver's seat pan is a bigger problem, as it is shot and so is the foam. However, I'm 6'4" and with the compacted seat foam I fit nicely in the car- I'm worried that if I replace the foam, I'll be eye level with the windshield chrome.

As Mike suggested, using a hole saw on the foam will help with squishability. If you are replacing the seat frames, contact Allen Hendrix @ https://www.hendrixwirewheel.com/index.shtml He sells a kit that replaces the two pivot points where the seat backs attach. The new points are raised higher, which causes the seat back to lean back further. This will give you additional head clearance and will also give more support to your back on long trips. The new parts need to be welded on, but shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes with a MIG.

Remember, we're always happy to tell a new guy how to spend some money.

 

[SpacerM]

Thanks, all. Good to know that the 1 1/2" hole saw (or green bean can as reccomended in another thread) will be sufficient to solve for my ride hight issues. I'm putting together my parts order now, and I have a quick question that hopefully one of you knows the answer to and can save me the time to disassemble and reassemble my seat just to check: I have three sheared bolts coming out of the driver's seat slide (where they should bolt to the bottom seat frame)- if I fully disassemble the slides from the car, will I be able to reinsert new bolts, or will I have to purchase a whole new slide assembly to replace the sheared bolts? Thanks.

 

[rjc157]

First things first if you take out the trafficator attach a wire or string to the end of it so you can pull the wires through the stator tube ,a stupid but one of the hardest jobs to do if you end up pulling it out all the oil in the steering box will come out and that stupid compression nut will get messed up .Second if you get new panels the color isn't going to match the seats since their weathered your going to be dissapointed also there is a chapter of the sports and touring club on the island they have alot of members there's a good mechanic out there they hold meetings at his shop my opinion don't go too crazy trying to fix every little thing or your never going to drive it

 

[Bob_Spidell]

... I have three sheared bolts coming out of the driver's seat slide (where they should bolt to the bottom seat frame)- if I fully disassemble the slides from the car, will I be able to reinsert new bolts, or will I have to purchase a whole new slide assembly to replace the sheared bolts? Thanks.

Depends on how hard you want to work at it (I have one cross-threaded stud and have contemplated how to fix it, but not attempted yet). There are pins at either end of the slider that keep it from coming apart. One or both will have to be punched or cut out. Then, you'll have to cut/drill/grind the old bolts out (I suspect they are flat-topped). Then, you'll need to replace them with new and weld them in place, then grind the bolt heads down so they won't impede the sliding. Should be doable; worth at least an attempt since new are about $80 (they come as a set).

 

[bob hughes]

SpacerM

I reduced the foam by around 1 and 1/2 inches after sitting on it in the car - could not get my legs under the steering wheel. I did not put the holes in, I prefered a more solid seat.



Bob

 

[SpacerM]

Thanks to the sage advice of all, the new seat pan, rails and foam is on its way (along with a 160 degree thermostat and a few other seals and bits which will make for a few projects over the next few weeks). While waiting for the package I've moved on to contemplating the relative merits of Penrite Steering Box Lube or John Deere corn head grease to pack my leaking steering gearbox. Temporary solution until I either tackle the leaking seal or get the gearbox rebuilt (which it seems oftentimes doesn't solve the leak due to grooves on the shaft).

Anyway, the one project I could tackle right away was the rebuilding of the Trafficator and installation of a more authentic Moto Lita wheel which just arrived direct from the UK at quite a savings over Moss. I am happy to say the trafficator is degreased, re-lubed, and now works flawlessly, and the bakelite is cleaned up with a nice coat of shoe polish. Doesn't mean I didn't mess it up mind you, and my mistake is to the tune of scratches from the Trafficator all around the new Moto Lita wheel:

These will be cleaned up either by a few hours of polishing at the wheel or alternatively by a new ring if I decide my time is worth more than the $35 replacement cost. As to the problem, it seems there is not enough clearance between the ring and the back of the trafficator lever, such that the trafficator scratches the ring during the turn and I don't know what I did wrong. The trafficator/horn assembly is fully seated flush up against steering wheel itself, no debris or burrs on the back and the trafficator arm is slightly touching the bakelite at the front, so there doesn't seem to be enough room to reposition or bend the trafficator arm away from the metal wheel. Similarly, as the bakelite is flush up against the wheel all around, the cause isn't an off-center/pitched assembly. Seems my only option is to completely disconnect and disassemble again to check for issues, but as the Trafficator fully functions, I'm at a loss right now as to how I ended up with this problem.

 

[British_Recovery]

SpacerM - Check the three set screws that hold the plate in place. That's what locates the assembly. The bakelite should be away from the hub a small distance. If you pull the assembly out a bit after loosening the set screws, you can measure the distance between the back of the bakelite and the plate and compare it to the distance between the leading edge of the hub and the set screws. Good luck, Bob