Last week we made a guess as to why this early E-type wouldn’t shift into 4th gear.  That speculation went like this:

“We’re pretty well certain that it’s caused by a previous assembler not lining up the synchronizer inner hub to mainshaft locking plunger with the shaved tooth on the outer sliding hub“.

That surmise was a pretty good one, as the pictures below illustrate

On the left you can see the mainshaft locking plunger in the I.D. of the inner hub, and behind it you can also see the relief on the mainshaft splines that form its detent.

Not all of those spline teeth on the inside of the outer hub are the same.  If you draw a straight line up thru the plunger bore just to the right of your straight line is … The Shaved Tooth.  It’s what we sometimes call an “Ah Ha” moment.  Click the picture to enlarge it and you can see what we mean.  The tooth profile is concave, the other teeth are plateaued.

While Patrick was having his fun downstairs with the E-type, Steve and Butch put a new windshield in this NYC-based TR6, which belongs to one of our favorite customers.  Anyone who pays more to garage their car than I pay for my mortgage is a true car guy.

This car guy has owned his TR6 from new.  A good TR6 is easy to like and the only thing that stands between his car and greatness is an overdrive .  Something to aspire to someday.

An interesting Austin Healey 3000 Mk II arrived here a week or two ago from New Jersey with instructions to sort it out.  John is the technician, and his first step was to sort out the carburetors, as you can gather from the photograph.  We can’t find any evidence of rust on the car, which was a surprise because it has all the earmarks of a quickie cosmetic redo, as demonstrated by the paint on the fuel hose in the lower right of the picture.

What is more concerning to us is the red heater hose.  Not only is it unattractive, but a close inspection will reveal that there aren’t any protective hose grommets where it passes thru the bulkhead to the heater, which predestines them to an early failure.  Grommets get installed today along with new black heater hose, and that is likely to be followed by session II underneath the car.

When I was running the motor hoist for Patrick while he was extracting the E-type engine & TX the phone rang and it was Mike Buononduci calling from South Corinth to say that he had the Jaguar Mk IX steering side rods that we have been on the search for  over the last several weeks.  Mike has a veritable Aladin’s Cave of obsolete, mostly factory original parts and he is always our first call when we need a complete tail light for a Humber Super Snipe or an outside door handle for an Austin Atlantic.

Your can e-mail Mike at OllyPart@tops-tele.com (the DSL service of the Topsham, Vt. telephone company), or call him at the number below:

Recalcitrant 4th gear synchro hub in a Moss TX

During last week’s roadtest of an early 3.8 E-type we could not bring  4th gear into engagement.  This TX is, of course, the legendary Moss gearbox which is high on torque capacity but generally slow shifting unless the driver is willing to help it along by double clutching both the down shifts and the upshifts.  Sometimes situations like this can be resolved by clearing away upholstery or trim which is impeding the free movement of the shift lever.

No such luck here.  Butch finally popped the top cover off the  trans. and conclusively demonstrated that it will not shift up into 4th.  Since you asked, we’re pretty well certain that it’s caused by a previous assembler not lining up the synchronizer inner hub to mainshaft locking plunger with the shaved tooth on the sliding outer hub.

Rectification details to follow once the transmission is out on the bench.

Patrick assembles a later full synchro E-type gearbox

In other Jaguar transmission news, Patrick finished assembling this full synchro E-type gearbox late last week.  It’s fairly derivitive of the non-synchro first gear Moss transmissions, not all of which, interestingly, were built by Moss Gears.  Their demand was such that many of the later Moss ‘boxes were built in-house by Jaguar, and they are identifiable by their serial numbers.

It’s a pretty good unit, even has it’s own oil pump and in a huge (like a Jaguar) leap forward, uses separate baulk rings which are much more affordable to change out than the complete gears with the blocker teeth cut on them ‘ala  Moss.

John strips the flywheel off a Healey 3000 for inspection

Currently, Patrick is overhauling the Independant Rear Suspension on this car, which we’ll report out on next week.

Meanwhile John is doing some driveline work, too.  In this case it’s a clutch overhaul on an Austin Healey 3000 Mk II.  To get at it, all you have to do is take out the seats, the tunnel, and then the tranny.  John can be seen here undoing the flywheel bolts so we can get it on the bench for a look-over.  Depending on the amount of wear, we often times have them resurfaced but this flywheel was in quite good condition.

We’re replacing it with a heavy duty Borg & Beck 10″ clutch which just happens to be the same clutch as the E-type uses.  That way we only have to stock one clutch to do two jobs.

Patrick and I started the day by convoying the MGB and series 2 E-type in the picture below up to East Coast Collision & Restoration in Mount Holly.  E.C.C&R  is beginning to look like E-type central with three of ’em there now for various fixes ranging from a spot repair to a full-on structural rebuild.  Yes, there’s snow on the ground but we timed it for dry roads.

We Deliver: MGB & E-type arrive at E.C.C&R. for spot repairs Thursday

Moving an E-type, not under its own power

We usually try to duck out of here a little early on Friday and if at all possible we leave the main service bay open for weekend use, which of course is when our own cars receive their attention.  Last Friday this was occurring as  Winter Storm Nemo began to move in on us.  In the picture at left John is acting as Wheel-Man while Steve hitches the tow strap to the E-type and Butch waits to hook the other end to the tow vehicle which some of you may be able to identify from the quarter view.

Series 1 E-type on test Wednesday

A series 2 E-type on test Thursday

This corner of Vermont received more snow than some, less than some others, but nowhere near the three feet that fell in parts of Southern New England.  However by mid-week we were able to resume road testing on the  half mile stretch of pavement in front of the shop which dries out quickly.  These two E-types were first out.  In the morning John will be running an Austin Healey  3000 MkII which is from Westport, New York,  just across Lake Champlain from Charlotte (pronounced Shar-Lot), a little south of Burlington.

Checking Shorrock supercharger vane clearances

Assembling an "A" type overdrive on a Lea Francis 4 synchro TX

Patrick has been tackling some esoteric components downstairs in the driveline shop while he’s waiting on parts for his Lotus Europa project.  Working closely with Ken Booth at KNB Manufacturing & Automation in nearby Westmoreland, N.H. he did a trial assembly of this Shorrock C75B supercharger and is now setting uniform vane clearances, which are critical for its efficient operation.  There are indications of a previous strip and rebuild which skipped that step.  His other undertaking pictured here is tidying up an “A” type overdrive conversion roughed out by Barry Price of Lea-Francis cars. This is proving to be a drama that might be called “The Tale of Two Tailcases”.

Warner at The Wheel: We Plow Our Own Snow

An MGB retrieved on dry roads

If the weather forecasters are to be believed New England is in for a mighty big snowstorm.  We’ll see.  Last week we had a mighty big rainstorm which left the roads just as clean as they are in August and that set up the opportunity to hustle the red MG TD back to Boxford, Massachusetts and hike an hour into Maine to retrieve the black MGB  which can be seen here with John about to pull it off the trailer.  The dusting to an inch of snow came overnight while the car, truck & trailer were sitting safely in the barn.

Soft paint means extra protection

We’re trying to figure out why this car has absolutely no heat.  It’s a puzzling matter.  We pulled out the heater assembly and put a new foam rubber A/C gasket around it so that no cold air can bypass the heater core, and we also replaced the completely obstructed Smith’s heater valve with no result.  Baffling.  What we do know is that the engine was overhauled by a New Hampshire machine shop that we’ve had to clean up after several times in the past, so we’re just wondering…

Patrick sets up his lifting tackle on the Lotus

Meanwhile Patrick was getting a move on downstairs with the late Lotus Europa Twin Cam.  It’s a car that’s been off the road for more than 20 years, many of them spent outside.  Because of our strong suspicions about the drivetrain It seemed like a wise precaution to haul it out and have a look at things.  The clutch bell housing had become a happy home for mice and the clutch itself was well and truly stuck to the flywheel.  Not an unusual state of affairs under the circumstances.  The engine did in

Then mounts the Europa engine to the stand

fact turn, something of a surprise really, although it was pretty grotty on the inside.  The valves on #4 cylinder must have spent a long time in the open position because although the rings came off numbers 1, 2 & 3 pistons readily enough, they were deeply corroded onto piston #4 which is now soaking in a releasing agent.

Additionally, there is evidence of a previous repair, we’re guessing a dropped valve in #2 cylinder based on the beating that the cylinder head and piston have obviously taken, and we’d say the subsequent cylinder wall hone job makes the truly awful cylinder finish on 50’s & 60’s Jaguars look absolutely first class by comparison, but we can fix that !

So it’s back to work in the morning.  Butch is soldiering on with the early 3.8 E-type pictured here last week, while John is now attending to the green 1970 series 2.  Steve is still slogging thru inventory while I crunch those numbers and try to parse out their meaning.