Rumpelstiltskin the Healey 100-4

OK my fellow car loving rust hating friends...I am here to TESTIFY! I am going to testify about the miraculous powers of 50/50 acetone and ATF! HALLELUJAH!!!

Praise the lord after a night of soaking in the brew the rear drum came off like a lamb to slaughter. It was AMAZING!

Seriously, I had heard of this wiches brew, but as a life-long manual shifter, who has ATF kicking around? So, with this bleeping drum refusing to come off even with a puller cranked as tight as I dared, I realized that I had ATF and Acetone in the garage at the same time. Without much hope I mixed some up, hit the studs with a liberal dose of the stuff, and went in for the night. Damn if the drum did not come off this morning with little effort from the puller.

I don't know why, but for some reason the ATF/Atone cocktail popped into my melon(in the blazin' heat here in SE TEX)....maybe cuz of all the builds here fightin stick NUTS...good to hear, have ATF and I'm lookin' fer Atone in the grosh cabinets as we blog....ya never know...

Looking a bit better after some time with the wire-wheel on the grinder, a bunch of brake-kleen and some POR

As mentioned, I suspect the brakes were done shortly before the car was laid down since the cylinders look good inside and the fluid was clear. I still plan to pull the front calipers apart since you cant be too careful with a single circuit braking system.

Once again the mix of acetone and ATF did the job with the brake adjusters. Probably the first time ever I have managed to free the adjusters without the use of heat. Took a couple of days, but it freed them off.

Huge thanks for the acetone ATF endorsement. I have 8 pistons on the ground thanks to that trick. I'm certain I'll be using it more as disassembly continues.

such a beautiful car, my Grandad had one when my mum was born. Looking forwards to see this one return to road duty!

On the off chance that there is some Healey guru on this board.

This car did not come from the factory with disc brakes. It does however have them now, and since I want to rebuild the calipers and find a new front hub for the DS, it would be handy to know what I am dealing with:

Back of caliper

Disc wheel hub that needs replaced ( inner wheel bearing surface damaged)

Master cylinder ( guessing stock)

Got the back brakes all buttoned up with new cupro-nickel lines along the axle. Handbrake free-up and working.

Here are the brake lines that came out of the front of the car. Note that I did not distort them, they were routed this way The worst was the one running to the back brakes as it hung way below the chassis.

Carbs ship out on monday to be rebuilt. New lines will be run as close to original routing as I can determine Big parts order going out.

The AH 3000 had front discs. Apparently it's a straight swap, so that is probably where I'd look first. However, I wouldn't know a 3000 disc if it bit me, so I can't be any further help. There are also a couple of different aftermarket conversion kits, so if it's not 3000 parts I'd look into those.

You may want to give Apple Hydraulics a call. They rebuild all of the old British stuff and can probably tell you what you have.

Another great trick if you run into metal things that are stuck and even heat wont cut it...

Once it is good and hot just touch with a candle and let the wax melt in.. That works REALLY good too...

ronholm wrote: Another great trick if you run into metal things that are stuck and even heat wont cut it... Once it is good and hot just touch with a candle and let the wax melt in.. That works REALLY good too...

I use birthday candles for this. The waxy nature of the liquid forms a seal and the wax gets sucked in as the fitting cools.

I like to know why stuff works, and to be honest, I cant understand why the ATF/Acetone mix works better than stuff formulated for the job? Why is the stuff not sold pre-mixed in a spray can?

Looks like a BJ7 setup

Can't read all of the print but it looks a lot like the setup I had a few years ago.

bmw88rider wrote: Looks like a BJ7 setup Can't read all of the print but it looks a lot like the setup I had a few years ago.

What is going to get interesting is the flex hoses as they are quite different than what you show. My opinion ia that the ones that were on there were too short for the job.

I have been replacing all of the brake-lines with ni-cop. There was a lot some corrosion on the existing lines, but more to the point the ones that were on the car were a E36 M3-pile. Hard to believe that someone once charge money to install lines that were this poorly routed.

Before and after line of what ran to the back. This thing had loops that hung way under the chassis forming the lowest part of the car. ALL of the brake lines were like this

For those playing along at home. Some tips to doing brake lines

A good flare relies on a 90 degree cut. Dont trust the cutter to give you a square edge. Clamp the line in the tool backwards and use a file to male it perpendicular to the surface. The took is hardened, so not a problem.

Ni-cop tubing requires a gentle hand. When doing the first and second operations, stop when you feel resistance. If you keep cranking you will distort the flare.

Another tric worth knowing is how to straighten the tube when you buy it on a roll. This is what it lookes like after I unroll it

Clamp one end in the vice. Clamp a vice grip in the other end and whack the vice grip with a big hammer.. That is how I get the nice straight run from this "just unrolled" state.

Forgot to add the "After" picture of the straight brake-line

While admirable in some capacity, the patina in the trunk had to go. Keeping in mind that this is a "stabilization and preservation" effort and not a "Restoration" we gave the trunk a once over with the wire wheel and then a coat of POR to keep rust at bay

But of course the nice shiny finish did not quite match the look I wanted, so out comes the International Harvester red rattle can...

Bit better, but still kind of bright. I will leave the trunk open as I continue to grand sand and wire wheel other bits; that should give it a nice layer of "barn-find dust".

Also cleaned up the bits and bobs from the carbs and front suspension. The problem with cleaning and painting stuff on a car like this is that it is hard to stop.

Parts arrived in Port Huron so wife and I made a date day or going over to collect the part. Promise was a fish lunch and the place I found did not lack in delivering the goods. Right on the St Clair River and they serve some of the freshest perch and walleye I have had. Purdys was the name of the fish fry place and if you are in Sarnia I highly recommend it for lunch.

Back to car stuff....

Got the new fuel tank in place

Ne battery tray in place

The battery cables in this car had been re-routed to go inside the car, under the seat and out the heater flap to the solenoid. Not gonna work for me. Re-routed, and fabbed up some clips to hold the brake and battery cable

The repair to the front hub worked a charm and the front hubs, bearings and rotors are ready to roll

The Healey is coming together nicely. Made a battery mount and got the tank sitting on a bed of  caulk of some sort used by the Mustang restorers to seal and cushion the tank.

But...since nothing is ever going to be easy, I have run into an issue where the fitting on the fuel line does not thread into the fitting on the new tank. I mean, the tank was only $600, so why would I expect it to be correct!

No big deal I think, just change the fitting on the line to what works with what is on the tank. Problem is, I have not been able to identify the thread on the tank fitting. None of my pitch gauges fit and none of the taps that I have seem to thread in. Maybe metric?

I bought new seals for the front calipers, but after trying to get the pistons out with compressed air and having no luck, the calipers are off for a visit to the re-builder here in town.

Received news from the carb re-builder that the H4s were going to be delayed at least a week. Surprised, NO, but still, I did have a dream of getting this out of my garage in September so I can get back on the Molvo.

In reply to NOHOME :BSP  British standard pipe. Also used on MG T series TC TD TF 

frenchyd said:

In reply to NOHOME :BSP  British standard pipe. Also used on MG T series TC TD TF 

Thanks, will give that a try. No Bleeping idea where I am going to get such a beast but worth a try. 

The fitting on the end of the fuel line that goes into the tank is a compression fitting, so not sure how that factors in to the equation.

Great progress!

I remember shooting the pistons out with compressed air. I wanted to see how far they'd go, but the adults in the room prevailed and we wrapped them in towels.

NOHOME said:

Parts arrived in Port Huron so wife and I made a date day or going over to collect the part. Promise was a fish lunch and the place I found did not lack in delivering the goods. Right on the St Clair River and they serve some of the freshest perch and walleye I have had. Purdys was the name of the fish fry place and if you are in Sarnia I highly recommend it for lunch.

Just a lurker here, great thread. You drove right by my place, I love Purdy's! Great family business, they have been fishing the Great Lakes for generations. Highly recommended.

In reply to NOHOME :Moss motors  in Gillette California  

they sell parts for MGT series which use  4 different kinds of bolts  including BSP 

NOHOME,

If you wanted to find a fitting a bit closer to you, try:

David Jackson - Highway 2, Newcastle Ontario
905-987-8652

I used to sell him a lot of SU bits back when I was in the British parts industry.  I'm sure he'll have something that will work.  I'm going out on a limb, but I would think that an MGA or T-series angle fitting for the fuel pump should have the correct BSPP thread.

When I was pulling the wheel cylinders apart on the cabover the only way I could get the pistons out was to hook them back to the brake lines with the shoes off and use brake pressure to push them out. This made a mess. I don't recommend it, but it did work. 

I bailed on the calipers and sent them off to a local place that is well regarded in the hot-rod and brit car community.

Also did a bit of snooping and found out that the 7 year nap is closer to 20 years. Explains the state of what was in the fuel tank.