Today I spent the whole day replacing the rear leaf springs on the BT7. The
passenger side went smooth as silk and took about a hour start to finish. The
driver side took the rest of the day. The front shackle pin was frozen and
would not come out no matter what I did. It's hard to get a good hit on it
because of the angle made by the fender and after soaking it with liquid
wrench and beating on it for two hours with a piece of 1" brass round stock, I
gave up and took the exhaust system off so I could get to the frame shackle. I
cut the bolt off at both ends between the eye of the spring and the frame with
a 4" metal cutting blade and a die grinder. It's a hell of a place to try to
get to. The worst part of the design is instead of a hex head on the inside
end of the bolt, there is a round head with a flat on one side that is held by
a keeper that is welded to the frame. Only the English would design something
like this. I replaced both front bolts with 7/16" hardened hex bolts and nuts
with lock washers. The next guy that has to take the spring off will at least
have something to put a spanner on. The new geared starter is in and when the
seats come back from Heritage next week, I will be ready for the summer
season. It's been a loooong winter but I love working on the Healey and that
helps pass those winter nights. See you on the road. JL
James Lea
Rockport Maine
1962 BT7 II
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