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Rearend slack

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Richard Dickinson

Jedi Trainee
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Im restoring a BT-7 that hasn't been driven in about 30 years. There is about 1/8 In. rotational slack measured at the drive shaft flange and the diff case. Is this condidered normal? When last driven the car had a slight whine on both drive and coast. This may have been due to low fluid level.
 
Hi Richard,
A normal clearance for the ring gear to pinion gear would be .008" to .012". While your 1/8" rotational travel does not directly translate to ring gear to pinion gear clearance, it is still quite a bit. This likely accounts for the whine. If it has been run that way for any length of time, resetting the clearance is not likely to help much. The choices are to live with it or replace the gears. 140 wt gear lube may quiet it a bit. If you can stand the noise, which will get gradually worse, It's not in danger of immediate failure.
D
 
A few years ago someone was advertising in one of the Healey club magazines that they were trying to get enough orders togather to have some 3.545 crown and pinion sets made. Does any one know anything about this? Since I have a tractor for pulling stumps and I am too old to do much tire smoking, I would like to replace the gear set with a higher ratio set in the interest of increased fuel efficiency.
 
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A few years ago someone was advertising in one of the Healey club magazines that they were trying to get enough orders togather to have some 3.545 crown and pinion sets made. Does any one know anything about this?

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Yes, the whole project came together quite nicely, although it did take time. I have a set of those gears and they are now installed in my BN2 which should be back on the road shortly. I've read nothing but rave reviews from those who have driven with these gears. Acceleration times are not noticeably affected, and the high-speed cruising is oh-so-much better. You can thank the intrepid Mike Lempert for the whole shebang. At last report I think I heard he was trying to get another batch of orders organized. You can reach him at mlempert@bellsouth.net for all the particulars. Good luck.
 
Reid,

Who did you get to install your gear set? Looking the workshop manual, it looks like this is a fairly complicated process. Seems like it could be done at home with the proper tools, most of which could be fabricated or improvised except for the gage block. There are a lot of transmission shops listed in the phone book that say that they work on "rear ends" but I would hate to go to all of this trouble and wind up worse off. Any thoughts on this? Anyone?
 
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Reid, Who did you get to install your gear set?

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A local guy installed mine. I can't report on the job he did yet since it will be another 6-7 weeks before I can drive the car.

To be a bit more specific on how I found someone do install the gears, I asked friend and Healey restorer John Wilson ("Healey Lane Restorations" in Marcola OR) if he knew of anyone good, and he told me that Tom Monaco ("Tom's Import Toy Store" in Portland OR) used a local Portland guy who is a hot-rodder/dragster mechanic par excellence. I bought a new-used "pumpkin" (the case) from Bill Bolton ("Bolt-On Healeys" in Creswell OR) and gave everything to Tom who then got it done in short order. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif

I guess that we are blessed with a lot of serious, good, helpful people in the business of supporting Healeys out here in Oregon. Anyway I'll give you a driving report in a couple of months... hopefully! The car is a BN2 with the Le Mans Kit (not the car in the photo below my signature; that's my other 100, my factory 100M), and the engine was "very carefully built" so it should be peppy. I'm REALLY looking forward to it. Of course, I'll have to wait for a non-raining day since this car has AH aeroscreens in place of the regular windscreen. Film at 11. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/driving.gif
 
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