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Tom BN4

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Newbie here. My forum name is TomBN4. I live in Southwest Washington, across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon.

I bought my ’58 BN4 in 1979 from a friend in the San Francisco Bay Area where I grew up. It is a standard model with disc wheels and non-overdrive. I restored it myself in 1980 and had the engine rebuilt by Ken Walsh in Sunnyvale, CA. The car is totally stock except for a BJ8 cam. Also last year I changed out the 3.91 rear end for a new 3.54 set.

I belong to the Austin Healey Club USA and the A.H. Club of Oregon, but my teenage kids keep me from being very active in the clubs. I go on about one club outing a year.

I would like to put 60 spoke chrome wheels on my car and I am slowly looking for all the parts that are different from solid wheels. I bought a pair of front drums form a wire wheel car on Ebay last week. Then I was looking at the British Car Forum and found an article on disc brake conversion from Denis Walsh of England. It looks like I could buy the front disc brake conversion kit and it would change my car over to disc brakes and wire wheels at the same time. I think for the front all I would need are the bearings, grease cup, distance piece and shims.

Does this sound like the way to go or is it better to keep it more stock by finding old Healey parts to change over? Also, does anyone know if my stock master cylinder will work with these disc brakes?

It stopped raining for a few hours today so I took my car out and also took a digital picture of it to include with this post, but I couldn't figure out how to do that yet.
 
It's good to hear from you, Tom. When you have questions about your BN-4, this is the place for them. AL Bradley
 
<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Tom BN4:
Newbie here. My forum name is TomBN4. I live in Southwest Washington, across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon.

<hr></blockquote>

Hi Tom,

Welcome to the forum!

I wonder if I know your car...
I was working for Austin-Healey West at the time you bought your car (in San Francisco) and I knew Ken Walsh at the time. We were all pretty active in the AH Club Pacific Centre, as it was then called.

Number one: sixty spoke wheels won't clear your front drums. You'll wind up with about one-third broken spokes (ask my brother...)

I'm hardly one to talk, but the more original (or original specification) a car is, the better. That said, the disc brakes from an early 3000 are a straight bolt on swap. Unless you have phenominal (sp?) leg muscles, you'll want the same master cylinder as fitted to the (non-servo) early 3000. It is a smaller diameter and produces higher line pressure for the force input.
In your car, with integral m/c's, you'd have to change the clutch m/c as well and install a remote fluid cannister (much easier to fill).

Was your car on the road when you bought it? What color was it?

I'm looking for a 3.54:1 ring & pinion, where did you find yours?

Don't be a stranger...
I know, we're all a little strange around here
wink.gif


[ 02-03-2004: Message edited by: Basil ]</p>
 
<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>
Newbie here. My forum name is TomBN4. I live in Southwest Washington, across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon.

I bought my ’58 BN4 in 1979 from a friend in the San Francisco Bay Area where I grew up. It is a standard model with disc wheels and non-overdrive. <hr></blockquote>

Welcome to the Forum Tom. Good luck on your conversion to disc brakes. Why not just keep it original? BN4's are a rare car. Might be easier to just buy another AH?
wink.gif
 
<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Randy Forbes:

Number one: sixty spoke wheels won't clear your front drums. You'll wind up with about one-third broken spokes (ask my brother...)
wink.gif
<hr></blockquote>
Hi Randy,
I have read much contoversy about 60 spoke wheels not clearing the wider 2.25" front brake drums.

I checked with Allen Hendrix at Hendrix WW & he assured me that their Dayton #452, 60 spoke wheels would clear the drums. Something about offset & rim design of the various wheels. Still doubtful, I ordered the Dayton 60 spoke wheels for my BN2. Sure enough, the spokes DO clear the drums. Not by much, only about .040", but they do clear & I have had no trouble.

Not to say that the Dunlop wheels will clear. And maybe Hendrix modifies the Daytons to clear the drums. Check with Allen to verify before buying.
D
 
Randy (or anyone)--

If you're looking for a 3.5 differential set you can contact Mike Lempert, who put together the project two years ago. His current email address is either gearguy@comcast.net OR mlempert@bellsouth.net--I have his 3.5 diffs in both my cars and everyone that I know that bought one is pleased.

Best--Michael Oritt, 100 Le Mans
 
<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Dave Russell:

Hi Randy,
I have read much contoversy about 60 spoke wheels not clearing the wider 2.25" front brake drums.

Not to say that the Dunlop wheels will clear.
D<hr></blockquote>

I'd say that Dayton's must've taken that into consideration when tooling up. Good to know...

My brother put a set of chrome 60 spoke wheels on my car while it was in his possession back in the early 80s. When I got it back there were 21 broken spokes in the LF wheel and 11 (broken spokes) in the RF wheel
crazyeyes.gif


Fortunately, I had put a set of tri-carbs from a 3000 on the original 2.6 engine and it was running too rich for him to actually drive it! As soon as I got the car back, I put a set of 72 spoke TR-6 wheels on it and started playing with various MGB carb needles to get it dialed in.

Once set up, I never had trouble with the tri-carbs (or 72 spoke wheels) again.

blush.gif
sorry for hi-jacking TomBN4's thread
blush.gif
 
On the 60 spoke wheels issue:

I too bought a set of chrome 60 Daytons from British Wire Wheel for my 100. They built in an additional bit of offset to clear the frontdrums (which I have since converted to disks)and I had no problems.

Best--Michael Oritt, 100 Le Mans
 
My BT7 should have had discs but had been swaped back to drums years before I got it.I put the discs back on and I am very happy.So for driving pleasure switch but keep the parts for the drums in a box(or the trunk then you could say it still has the origional brakes) for origional\resale purposes.
CDK
 
<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Michael Oritt:
Randy (or anyone)--

If you're looking for a 3.5 differential set you can contact Mike Lempert, who put together the project two years ago. His current email address is either gearguy@comcast.net OR mlempert@bellsouth.net--I have his 3.5 diffs in both my cars and everyone that I know that bought one is pleased.

Best--Michael Oritt, 100 Le Mans<hr></blockquote>

Thanks!

I just sent him an e-mail...
 
Thanks for all the info. It will take me a while to decide if I am going to change to wire wheels. My car was Healey blue when I bought it in '79 and it had not run in about a year. I painted it Healey blue over Old English white in 1980 and painted the wheels matching white. I went with the AH Club Pacific Centre on wine tasting tours and tech sessions at Ken Walsh's garage, etc. from 1980 to 1985. Then my first child arrived and the car sat for six or seven years.

I bought my ring and pinion from Mike Lempert during his pre-order two years ago.

Tom
 
Tom:

You don't know how lucky you are to have those disc wheels. IMHO they are very attractive, rare and far better than any wires you can replace them with. A friend of mine has them and his Healey is about as smooth on the road as any I've ever driven -- partly due to those true disc wheels.

All the best,
Bill.
 
Tom,

The conversion to wire wheels is more complicated. Your drums for your steel wheels are different than my drums for wire wheels. My car originally had steel wheels. Actually, by the time I got the car it had no wheels. When I was researching the conversion to wires, the drums had to be changed and you also have to buy the hubs. The cost of that change has to be balanced with a disk conversion kit which comes with everything. I converted my front to disk, with power assist and have a great stopping car with normal brake pedal pressure. By the way, David Nock converted his 100-6 also. Neither of us changed the master cylinder. Still works great. Give me a call and I can discuss the procedure. If you are set at staying with drums and wires, I also have the set that came off my car with only 4000 miles on them. Originality is great but stopping power is better.

Jerry
BN4 1959
 
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