Work Continues Apace

series 2 E-type "square" cooling fan motor

series 2 E-type 'square' cooling fan motor

The green RHD Austin Healey 3000 MkIII last seen here on the back of our small trailer returned to Maine very successfully on Tuesday, which was arguably the most glorious day of the summer so far, with a brilliant blue sky, temperatures near 80 on the Maine coast, and virtually no humidity.  The owner and I put the top down and took it for a drive to the gas station.  There wasn’t much fuel left in the tank once we’d gotten done checking our repairs.

series 2 E-type

Looking in

Repairs are also almost complete on the series 2 E-type with which Butch has had a mighty thrash.  One of the last items on our fix-list was to sort out why one electric cooling fan was running with the key on and the thermostatic fan switch apparently bypassed, while the other one wasn’t.  However a physical examination of the subject fan motor revealed that it was in no condition to rotate the fan.

As pictured above the commutator on the end of the armature shaft was pretty well smoked, and because these ‘square’ fan motors are unique to series 2, a very expensive pair of reconditioned motors were ordered- in to replace them.  We’re hopeful Friday’s weather  will be suitable for returning the car.

MG TD cylinder head

This just in

Earlier this week we also received the now reconditioned cylinder head from the TD which suffered a failure on #8 exhaust valve a few weeks ago.  Because the tip of the valve stem was pretty well hammered in to the spring retainer, we forwarded it to the owner of the car as a useful, but very expensive paperweight.  Because the replacement retainer didn’t fit — all we’ll say about that is that it didn’t come from Abingdon Spares — the machine shop returned the head without it, but that’s great because now you can see the type of  proper valve stem seal that’s been fitted to all eight valves.  It’s probably Volkswagen, as these are metric engines.

MG TD engine & carbs

Works better with floats

Well I took it apart and Butch has been putting it back together.  Regrettably he didn’t know, because I forgot to tell him that I’d bagged up the carburetor floats separately, so when he tightened everything up and turned on the ignition the greasy shop floor developed an almost instant clean spot from the gas pouring out on it.

My bad and a very good example of why we always try to leave notes on the repair orders.

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