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Worst jobs on a Healey

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Rob Glasgow

Rob Glasgow

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In reading Steve's reply about poly bushings, he mentioned removing the rubber bushes on the A arms as being one of the "worst jobs on a Healey". That got me to thinking what others think are the worst tasks to tackle on a repair.
There are 2 on my list: Removing the roll pin on the clutch fork. (Topic of a current post.) And replacing the bushings on the cross shaft for the accelerator linkage.

Anyone else have a contribution based on personal experience?
 
Trying to get the bolts out of the front rear spring shackles on a BJ8 that have been in there since christ was a cowboy.
i ended up cutting them with a broken off hack saw blade inside the bump out box .......its took forever .

ITS CALLED ANTISEIZE PEOPLE !!!!!!!!! and its cheap ........
 
Healey Nut said:
Trying to get the bolts out of the front rear spring shackles on a BJ8 that have been in there since christ was a cowboy.
i ended up cutting them with a broken off hack saw blade inside the bump out box .......its took forever .

ITS CALLED ANTISEIZE PEOPLE !!!!!!!!! and its cheap ........
Click to expand...

Complain to Mick or Alf on the line back at the factory.
 
Healey Nut said:
Trying to get the bolts out of the front rear spring shackles on a BJ8 that have been in there since christ was a cowboy.
i ended up cutting them with a broken off hack saw blade inside the bump out box .......its took forever .

ITS CALLED ANTISEIZE PEOPLE !!!!!!!!! and its cheap ........
Click to expand...

Ditto.....I used a Sawsall after all other methods failed. :encouragement:
 
On a Healey, setting up a set of points in the distributor without taking the dizzy out of the car. I swear I must have used 5 different screw drivers. each one too short or too long or two wide, etc. It's also fun on the side of the road, almost dark, in a gravel lot when I burnt out my condenser. I was thinking if I drop one of these little washers or the nut in the gravel I am cooked. But talking about bushings and pivot points, the worse is the forward pivot on the rear trailing arms of a C2 or C3 Corvette. (similar to the radius rods on a BJ8). Once you learn, just grab the sawzaw and cut the ends of the bolts off and easy pizzy they come right out.
 
re: "Removing the roll pin on the clutch fork"

If only it WAS a roll pin, it would be a piece of cake. The originals, at least, are solid, hardened steel and, as noted, it's almost impossible to tell which end to drive (coming in from the hole in the bell housing makes sense, but they're usually peened over on both ends).

A tricky job, but not particularly objectionable since it's usually done out of the car, is mating up an OD to a gearbox. I threw in the towel after two days of trying last time, and took it to BCS. It took David and two of his mechanics to do it.

Oh, and getting the big nut off the end of the crankshaft so you can pull the pulley/balancer.
 
Replacing the bushings on the accelerator cross shaft is one of the easiest jobs on the car. It's getting the engine out so you can get at them is the most difficult job. (LOL's)
AJ
 
Trying to mate the OD to the gearbox with the gearbox in the car , those double splines have to be perfect or its not going in . Thats a character builder and you use words that cant be repeated in front of the kids .
 
mgtf328 said:
Replacing the bushings on the accelerator cross shaft is one of the easiest jobs on the car. It's getting the engine out so you can get at them is the most difficult job. (LOL's)
AJ
Click to expand...
Seats out , console tunnel etc , elastic fingers and lots of 1/4” drive extensions . Easy peasy.........especially if you used antiseize to assemble the car in the first place .:encouragement:
 
The descendants of the people who made medieval torture devices must have been on the Healey design team and I am sure we all have favorite unfavorite tasks.

One I hope never to repeat was putting back in place the small (3/8" or so diameter) brass core plug that blew out of the rear face of my car's block. Getting a punch situated to drive it back into place required removing the vertical panel at the front of the transmission tunnel and then slithering up under the dash. A couple of good knocks with a hammer was all it took to drive it back in and peen it over but my back has never been the same since.

If it happens again I sell the car!
 
worst job? hmmm
any job you have to do while on the road....
 
Fixing the frame. I finally took it to Martin Jensen for a new Jule frame.

After that, everything I touch. We've named it "the car that would not be restored". I'm sure it will keep fighting us but it will be restored!

I'll add, finding quality, affordable parts. Water pumps come to mind.
 
While not hard in the sense that it is mechanically challenging, the most frustrating job for me has been bleeding the brakes. The movie 'Ground Hog Day' comes to mind.
 
Hi All,

Rob, great idea for a thread. Reading through the posts was very lithargic for me as I probably have addresed all the issues presented and on my own (before the internet), with few good tools and even less documentation. I have always considered each of these tasks as a character builder and they have usually resulted in another Blood Red Badge of Courage gained by working through the frustrations and final illation of achievement when finding new ways to accomplish the task.

Its always nice to have Brothers in Arms who also have experienced the same scraped knuckle,
Ray(64BJ8P1)
 
Healey Nut said:
Seats out , console tunnel etc , elastic fingers and lots of 1/4” drive extensions . Easy peasy.........especially if you used antiseize to assemble the car in the first place .:encouragement:
Click to expand...

Replace the 4 screws with socket (allen) heads.

screenshot.1638.jpg
 
HealeyRick said:
Rotating the transmission the right way while lifting it up by yourself so it slides in that last inch is always fun.
Click to expand...


Amen that is it------LOL
 
Michael Oritt said:
The descendants of the people who made medieval torture devices must have been on the Healey design team and I am sure we all have favorite unfavorite tasks.

One I hope never to repeat was putting back in place the small (3/8" or so diameter) brass core plug that blew out of the rear face of my car's block. Getting a punch situated to drive it back into place required removing the vertical panel at the front of the transmission tunnel and then slithering up under the dash. A couple of good knocks with a hammer was all it took to drive it back in and peen it over but my back has never been the same since.

If it happens again I sell the car!
Click to expand...

I had that brass plug pop out once. Left a nice trail of oil down the driveway. I found that driving it in with a rivet gun worked wonderfully. An impact hammer would do the trick but I was afraid of hitting it too hard. Yes, even with the gun it was a bear. The bad part is that even though I have put thousands of miles on the car since that happened, I still think about it and almost expect it to happen again. It got to the point where I cleaned and etched the area of the plug and made a dome of JB weld over it to just give it a bit more staying power. Working on helicopters for most of my life has given me the mantle of being the guy who is just waiting for the next mechanical issue to pop up. Good grief...it never ends ( well it sorta does but I'll be dead and won't care).

My hardest job would have to be fitting the doors. They needed the slop on the hinge screws because all the bodies were a bit different but that also makes it difficult even if you are installing the same doors as original. If there were only a way to adjust them while they are closed...... Brake bleeding can offer up some good times too!
 
Healey Nut said:
Trying to get the bolts out of the front rear spring shackles on a BJ8 that have been in there since christ was a cowboy.
i ended up cutting them with a broken off hack saw blade inside the bump out box .......its took forever .

ITS CALLED ANTISEIZE PEOPLE !!!!!!!!! and its cheap ........
Click to expand...
I had the same experience on my '55 100. Had to used a pneumatic reciprocating saw and it still took forever to cut the bolt (had to cut off both ends)

Cheers,
Dan M.
 
Not a big job, but very frustrating...getting the bottom, inside mounting nut on the rear carburetor. Recently had to take that carb off to fix a sticking choke mechanism. I finally took an old 1/2" wrench, cut a "V" most of the way through the shank and bent it at a 45 degree so I could get it on the nut.

Griz
 
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