With all the discussions on handling, negative camber, toe-in leaf springs and the like, today I think I found the cause of my high speed wander complaint. As mentioned, I have always felt my Healey needed constant small directional corrections when traveling at speed and this was a condition that could become very tiring during an extended drive. Today I decided it was time to pack my front wheel bearings and, after jacking the left front wheel for removal, I noticed (for the first time) excessive end play. This was a new development to me, but since I hadn't overtly checked for this condition for quite some time, could have existed for who knows how long. After detecting the end play in the left front, I immediately checked the right wheel and no end play was detected.
Since the amount of end play was quite substantial, I expected to find that the bearing had somehow deteriorated with some physical indications. However, when withdrawing the outer bearing, no obvious problem was viewed and a thick and thin shim had been previously installed. Curious, and not having any additional shims on hand, I repacked and installed the same bearings with only the thick shim, knowing it would still produce a small amount of excessive end play. With the hub nut fully tightened and a substantial portion of the original end play eliminated, I decided to test the results with a drive.
The results, as you would expect, wandering was substantially diminished and stability increased. Since end play still is not correct on the left front wheel, I have ordered a new set of bearings and full compliment of shims. I expect to get them in the very near future and will install the new parts for, hopefully, even better directional stability. This may eliminate any need to install the parts purchased to produce negative camber.
Ray (64BJ8P1)