Yesterday was a good day.

John was in fine form and very inspirational as ever.  We started by separating the gearbox & overdrive and then took the later to bits.

From start to finish it was a good day.  The overdrive is in good order and only needs a clean out of the built up sludge.  The gearbox was also surprisingly good which is great because a new set of gears is the best part of £6000 and that would have really derailed the project.  We looked at the steering box and idler and both of those were good as well.  Finally John found a new, and straight lever for my brake master cylinder.

All in all a very good day.  I have a rebuilt engine, good gearbox, overdrive and steering box.  Perfect, all I need to do now is put them back together and stick them in the car.

:-)

Tomorrow I am off to see John again with my gearbox/overdrive unit to get an idea from him on what I need to do to get it ready for installation.  I am very excited about it.  This morning I dragged the gearbox out of storage at my in-laws and grabbed a few other things like the prop shaft to take with me for his views.  Some of the other parts I have been working on are also coming and I had a few final bits of fettling & cleaning to do before I could take them; so a day getting mucky beckoned.


I started with the idler which I spent a while looking for last week without luck only to see it on the floor right in front of me all along.  The movement is very smooth so I hope it is ok.  I started to clean it off and looked at the steering arm and decided that I should just get on and heat it to remove it.  So I took the cheap and cheerful puller and managed to clamp it on the arm without the damaged thread section getting in the way and applied some heat.  It popped off.  I cleaned the rest of it up then took the steering box and did the same to that.  No obvious signs of damage, phew.

I realise this connecting rod is knackered and am somewhat pleased to note that they are pretty reasonably priced new which is a relief.  The longer rod does come apart and I can buy just the ends which I will do although the price for the whole thing is not much more than a pair of rod ends but I like to reuse what I can.

I did also find the arm for the master cylinder which is bent, hopefully John has one as I couldn't see them listed on Ahead4 Healey's website.

Very much looking forward to tomorrow.

Jolly happy to be back in the garage.  On the basis that I am taking the gearbox / overdrive unit to see John next weekend I am thinking that I should make the most of the opportunity to get some advice.  So I pulled the master cylinder apart and set about cleaning it.  The exposed section of the inner bore is a little pitted which is a shame but I suspect it'll be ok.  I can't locate the rod that pushes the piston which is troublesome.

I wanted to do the steering idler next but couldn't find it so grabbed the steering box and set about stripping that down.  The actual box looks like it has been recently (well in terms of a 1954 car) worked on which bodes well as the paint was quite new looking.  However, it feels rough when I move the arm for the steering connector rods.  It felt less rough when I turned the steering column though.

The connecting rods were very difficult to remove so I needed a hammer and some heat.  I couldn't get the steering arm off, even broke my puller.  I was reluctant to use heat on that incase it would have a detrimental effect on the steering box itself so I will have to put some more thought into it and come back another day.

Once I removed the cover I could see the main gears and they looked ok but I can't be sure from just looking.  I didn't want to remove the pegs though as I didn't want the bearings scattering everywhere.

Finished up by letting the oil drain away.

I had a lovely day at Rawles Motorsport open day today.  There were loads of lovely cars on display.  I felt somewhat surprisingly that my favourite two were an e-type and a Jensen despite the presence of some lovely Healey's.

Fortunately they had a few 100's there in addition to the customers cars.  I greatly enjoyed talking to the bodywork expert, Sam and the superb mechanic, Vince.  I established that I have another item missing from my chassis, a captive nut for the earthing strap, poo.

I am thinking that I should just mount the earth strap to the shock absorber mounting bolts despite the clear guidance that Vince gave to the contrary.

It was lovely to see the cars and gauge in more detail what I have ahead of me.  I was conscious that the work on display makes mine look pretty amateurish, oh well.

Not a Healey but it looked absolutely beautiful when it drove in to the car park.

Springs in black

Having finished the shocks I started to think about everything else that is needed to get the axel in the car and decided that I really should look at the springs.  There were two issues: yellow paint/markings on the springs and exposed metal which will surely rust given any exposure to our damp environment.

A little bit of cleaning / stripping and all ready to go.

The finished article hanging in the garage whilst waiting for the paint to dry.

Shocks sorted

Had a few distractions from garage time which were beyond just work so I delighted to open the door and step inside this morning.

I had ordered the shock oil and links from Ahead 4 Healey's and got on with making the gaskets and putting them back together.  I started with the one original gasket that I managed to get off the shock without damage and some gasket paper.

A little bit of tracing.

And lots of cutting and faffing produced the finished article.

Then I cleaned off the shocks and filled them with oil being careful to expel all the trapped air which I hope I did.  It took quite a lot of leavening the arm up and down but I got there in the end.

Then having fitted the top back on and carefully tightening the screws I was able to paint with my new POR15 in matt black.  Very pleased with the finished shocks.