Austin Healey BJ8 hitches a ride

We’ve been chasing an apparent fuel delivery problem in this right hand drive Austin Healey 3000 Mk III.  Initially the car responded well to having all of the fuel line clamps tightened, a common enough problem with any number of cars regardless of whether they have mechanical or electric fuel pumps, and in fact we also  checked this pump by substitution.  I personally ran 25  trouble free miles including on the Interstate.  Luckily, this failure occurred while the car was still in our hands.

In the process of trying to suss out our the problem, Reilly cleared the pump-to-carb and pump-to-tank fuel lines with compressed air.  Often times this will turn up evidence of debris creating a blockage.  By removing the fuel gauge sending unit  we had seen visual evidence of an inner coating having been applied to the tank, so we drained it and the fuel came out clean.  Much of the time the coating will come out in sheets when you do this.

Butch checks E-type half shaft U-joints

Not so with this tank, but we pulled it out anyway, and discovered a coming & going  restriction in the pick up tube, probably a sheet of the stuff intermttantly flopping over the gauze strainer.  A new tank goes in tomorrow.

I have been working downstairs putting together a 948 cc Austin Healey Sprite engine, and Wednesday I timed up the APT bump-up cam.  A close observation of that picture will also reveal that the timing gear has been strengthened by the additon of an IWIS duplex roller chain & sprockets.  I have it timed for 2 degrees advance over a split overlap.

Reilly & Patrick haul out a V12 E-type engine

Meanwhile Butch continued to chase down the unacceptable rear hub play in the series 2 E-type featured here last week.  Even after having correctly set up the taper roller bearings in the rear hub carriers, play was still present.  It turned out to be the universal joints in the differential half shafts.  These need to be spot-on because the half shafts are also the upper members of the rear suspension.

While these are a brilliant design feature of the Jaguar IRS, they need to be checked and kept well greased because a U-joint failure could quickly become a catastrophic suspension failure. A word to the wise.

'A' series & Compact 'A; series overdrives

Weekends are when we get to work on our own stuff sometimes.  In this last picture the engine is coming out of Patrick’s series 3 fixed head coupe which he’s changing over to a four-speed manual with the interesting addition of a late ‘Compact A’ series overdrive.  Although Jaguar never fit overdrive to the E-type, rumor has it that the 2+2 body shell will accommodate it and we’re gonna find out.  The unit going in is just visible between the blue engine tilter and the ratchet on the end of it.

Coram, Long Island Thursday morning around 2:00

Sometime around 5:00 Thursday morning a man living at 4 Whitfield Lane, Coram, N.Y. looked out his window and saw a sight that must have astounded him, the MG TD which he hadn’t driven in almost 30 years just sitting out there ready to go.

It would also be accurate to say that I was also astounded by his reaction, which was far from gratitude.  Perhaps he was momentarily taken aback by the $5,000.00 open balance repair order thoughtfully left on the passenger seat with a British Invasion of Stowe registration package.  Whatever the reason, what he received was excellent value for the money because it was another of those situations where we put pride ahead of profit margin.  When I rolled his MG off the trailer the odometer reading was exactly 80,250 miles, including 85 we put on running it in.

Reilly brings Myron in after 85 miles of shakedown work

The driving assessment sugars off like this:  Myron runs up hills in 4th gear that most TD’s struggle up  in 3rd.  Doors close well now and the suspension is tight.  Lights, horn & wipers are all working.  There is some pedal pulsation from the clapped-out brake drums and it’s whiny in 1st & reverse, but that’s a fair trade-off with the used cluster gear we put in when we discovered a number of teeth had been cleaned off the 2nd speed wheel.

The problem was obvious

I got kind of a late start and a flat tire (right rear in the first picture) just south of Hartford, Connecticut on Interestate 91 caused me to miss the last outbound Port Jefferson Ferry of the night which added 200 miles to the round trip.  It was also a fine night for road contruction, and there was plenty of it on the New England Thruway.  After midnight traffic was light and moving well on the Long Island Expressway, which is also sometimes referred to during the day as the world’s longest parking lot.

How Butch fixed the other side

Meanwhile over in bay #3 Butch has been wrestling with an with an ignorance problem vis a vis the  very well presented series 2 E-type OTS seen here.  Even though almost everybody in the world knows it, it would seem that there are still a few people who don’t know that even with Concours-only Trailer Queens, which this car isn’t, you still have to grease the splined hubs or terrible things will happen.

Warner can tell you about the extreme consequences.  He managed to clean the splines completely off the right front hub on his MGC GT when he first got it, although that problem was an inheritance.  All he knew initially is that when he came to an abrupt halt on a fast road the car stopped but the R/F knock-off hub kept right on going, so he summoned me to bring another and in short order he lost that one, too.

Adjusting the bearing end float in the rear hub carrier

The consequences here were just that the wheels wouldn’t come off initially.  Igor had also used his biggest hammer and the knock-off’s were on W-A-Y  too tight !   After a heroic struggle Butch finally got the right rear wheel off, but the left rear only succumbed to his ministrations after a dozen full lock, power-on circles with the knock-off only done up hand tight.  It works but it ain’t pretty to watch.  A rear wheel bearing service also ensued.

First order of business

Another Monday, another E-type.  This is the Jaguar that can be seen being unloaded in NYC in our old  Tri-Fold flyer.  A new one is in the works so the old one is now a collector’s item.

Not so Nice

A subsequent inspection of the  tank filter revealed a fuel tank in a failing state, and upon consultation with the owner, we ordered-in and installed a new one.  It was a wrestling contest for a while, but Butch won.  As you might expect, we’ve already inspected the brake linings & cylinders, changed out the brake & clutch fluid, and shortly we’ll be running a wrench over the suspension.

Reilly re-covers a TD dash

Reilly continues to reassemble the MG TD known as ‘Myron’.  It’s right behind him in this picture with a brown body tub and black fenders.

Because the dashboard was kinda’ shabby, Reilly pulled it apart and cleaned up & polished what he could, and based on what we had available it’s now a red vinyl dashboard, although there’s a possibility if might have been a black vinyl dashboard.  the limiting factor being that we didn’t have a big enough piece of black vinyl.  Seats & upholstery are going in today. Next week it might be running and then we can put it thru its paces.

Kenlowe fan installed

As previously alluded to on this page, your scribe recently finshed up the installation of a Kenlowe fan kit in another series 1 E-type.  Although advertised as ‘direct fit’, it wasn’t.

In the picture on the right you can see the two mounting straps on the top of the radiator tank that Rodney at B&R’s Garage in Lebanon, N.H. installed for us when he serviced the radiator.  The fan is offset to the left for lower hose clearance as seen in a picture below.

Where the old fan isn't

The NAPA top hose came with the car, but I took about 5/8’s of an inch off of each end to remove the kink in the middle. But maybe what’s most interesting in this picture is what isn’t there anymore, the bracket for the original fan because the Kenlowe fan wouldn’t slide in past it.

The four round dark spots underneath the header tank are what’s left of the spotwelds that secured the fan bracket.

Fan casing relieved for water pipe clearance

I left them to provide location should a subsequent owner ever want to reverse the procedure.  Offsetting the  fan to the left was critical.  As it was, I needed to use the die grinder to relieve the fan casing to clear the lower water pipe.  Less obvious here is that I also took an inch off the top of the lower hose.  This provided the 1/8th of an inch of clearance that relieves me, too.  Because I’m always mistrustful of electric fan switches, an override switch is also wired into the car now where the driver can operate it.

Routine Maintenance, OR: How To Dress Up Your Service Bay