No Job is Really Simple

First it was the left axle seal, then the bearing, then the axle housing misaligns the hub, then the Panhard rod, then ...

I have to take the differential out of the axle case so I can remove the axle from the car (supposedly, one doesn't have to, but the axle is too heavy to do it by oneself).

I have the axle out with the opening for the differential facing up. I go to put the differential back in for safekeeping and to drain the remaining oil into the case and I hear something drop into the case. Sounds like a washer. I pull the differential out and see this:

It was running quietly, but if this had stayed in the gear cluster, that might have changed dramatically.

Wow, that's a lot of damage. Any chance that you hit a big pothole or speedbump along the way? Hard to believe poly bushings could have been the cause.

Some of this is probably related to the car's previous history. It had been in at least one accident. When I did the restoration, the rear axle seemed fine, and I replaced the seals. The Panhard rod also seemed fine. Installed the ploy bushings.

I've had to replace the left rear axle bearing a few times. After the second time, a careful look at the half shaft indicated that the flange wasn't perpendicular to the shaft. Ah, that's it! New half shaft, bearing and seal.

~2,000 mi later, leaking again. Maybe I didn't clean it well enough. Cleaned more thoroughly. New half shaft, bearing and seal. Panhard rod bracket on axle is broken. Fabricate a new one.

~3,000 mi later, have to change the brake pads (rear discs). Notice what looks like brake fluid leaking. Replace calipers with rebuilt calipers. Putting new caliper on and notice a drip of gear oil. Grrr. Mention to our local Sprite guy. He suggests that I check if end of axle case is bent. After figuring out how to do that, discover that hub and half shaft flange do not align by ~0.1". Look for sign of damage on axle case - none visible. Thus starts the current disassembly. Replacing case, hub, Panhard rod and now differential.

The good news is that I think it will be less than a new crown on one of my molars.

John - did you ever jack up the rear and observe the runout on the LR wheel and/or rotor vs the RR?

Are you driving the BJ9 to Deadwood?

steveg said:

John - did you ever jack up the rear and observe the runout on the LR wheel and/or rotor vs the RR?

Are you driving the BJ9 to Deadwood?

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This will give you an idea of the LR misalignment, about 0.1". When bolted up tight, the half shaft flange seems to override the hub:

The runout on the half shaft flange is about 0.001".

The RR flange and hub mate perfectly. In case you are wondering, the 1/4" screws and washers are to hold the hub bearing spacer ring to keep the hub from wobbling.

As for going to Deadwood, we used up our quota for traveling for this year. We didn't sign up.

Hey John -

As long as you're into the rearend, I moving some of my spares. I have a complete pumpkin with a quaife LSD and 3.9:1 gears, with less than 100 miles on it. PM me if interested.

Hi John,

That is a lot of work you have been doing.

My father always referred to my Healey as my "Forever Car" and he was not referring to its longevity. As a man who maintained the creed "If the car runs good, don't lift the hood", he always said that my Healey was a competition car that craved attention...if I didn't create work, it would. He also believed that the Healey had NO 5-minute Jobs and kept reminding me that there were jobs that happen to take 5-minutes and jobs that should have taken 5-minutes, but no 5-minute jobs.

Look upon your present venture as your Healey's way of trying to stimulate your interest, creativity, and mechanical astuteness by deepening your experience curve.

All the best John,
Ray(64BJ8P1)

RAC68 said:

Hi John,



Look upon your present venture as your Healey way of trying to stimulate your interest, creativity, and mechanical astuteness by deepening your experience curve.

All the best John,
Ray(64BJ8P1)

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Y'know Ray, you've made an excellent point. Do our Healeys need us more than we need them? Think how dull life would be if we didn't have to maintain them. There's always a new skill to be learned, a new challenge to be overcome, and a group of friends to help us along the way. And when you come up with a problem you can't solve on your own, you make a whole new circle of friends trying to find the guy or the gal with the skill to do it or has that elusive part stashed away somewhere. Try modifying your Healey and the challenges grow a thousand-fold, but so do the rewards. I think the biologists call it a "symbiotic relationship".

I have long been heard to say that there's no five (5) minute job on a Healey that takes less than half an hour.

Yes, I've always been an optimist; we know how long a half-hour job takes...

Thanks Ray, Rick & Randy. You're right; it's an intellectual exercise, and a great group of people.

When I tell non-Healey people "It keeps me off the streets," I get the feeling they don't understand.

John Turney said:

When I tell non-Healey people "It keeps me off the streets," I get the feeling they don't understand.

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Hmmm... if your Healey "keeps you off the streets," I think there's something wrong with that picture.

Editor_Reid said:

Hmmm... if your Healey "keeps you off the streets," I think there's something wrong with that picture.

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Actually Reid, there is nothing wrong with this picture. I'm an engineer by temperament and training. I find it satisfying to troubleshoot, work on and try to improve the Healey while maintaining it's character. My 100-6 car was never going to be a concours-correct vehicle (it came with a 3000 drivetrain, after all). It has been enjoyable and fun to drive, especially when out-doing newer vehicles, and it truly kept me off the streets during a lengthy mostly self-restoration, but the mental stimulation from tackling the various issues has been satisfying. It's not an appliance like our daily drivers.

John Turney said:

Actually Reid, there is nothing wrong with this picture. I'm an engineer by temperament and training. I find it satisfying to troubleshoot, work on and try to improve the Healey while maintaining it's character. My 100-6 car was never going to be a concours-correct vehicle (it came with a 3000 drivetrain, after all). It has been enjoyable and fun to drive, especially when out-doing newer vehicles, and it truly kept me off the streets during a lengthy mostly self-restoration, but the mental stimulation from tackling the various issues has been satisfying. It's not an appliance like our daily drivers.

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Agree 110%. Healeys can be a never-ending source of "science projects".

Well, I think as you may have picked up, my comment was a bit tongue-in-cheek and a play on words ("off the streets" when "on the streets" is a car's natural habitat). I'm well aware that for some people the most interesting part of the car hobby is working on them, restoring them, troubleshooting problems and repairing them. There are even people who restore cars and immediately put them up for sale. It's "the project" that interests them, not the driving.

Obviously those people are at one end of a continuum, but I'm closer to the other end. I like their history and driving them and I do NOT regard a breakdown or other problem as an opportunity for a fun project to diagnose and repair. Certainly some do, and some of you here on the BCF/AH Forum are among the best of those and I'm thankful that you're here and participating to make the AH Forum so useful.

I enjoy the "barn find" and restoring it--solving what ever problems arise, and fixing them--I have restored --lets see--2 Morris Minors, 1 Mg Midget, and 3 Nash Metropolitans--
In every case after I drove them around the neighborhood, and determined they were safe and reliable--I put them on ebay--I figure I sold each one for probably $2,000 less than what I had in them,
but that wasn't the point--the point was to get "seed money" for the next project car. A couple of neighbors watching all these projects, said that I "lost money" on each one--and I said
"no-each project car took about 2 years of so --that's $1,000 bucks a year for a "hobby"--that's pretty cheap entertainment" besides, my wife says, they keep me off the streets, and out of the
bars-the pics I downloaded was really a barn find--all the others mentioned, were running cars--just needed a lot of work----

Harold said:

I... besides, my wife says, they keep me off the streets, and out of the
bars-...

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Since our local club is sometimes called a "wine club with a driving problem" my hobby only keeps me off the streets. :friendly_wink: