Mick,
How 'bout bringing it by my house so I can take it for a test drive for a
weekend (assuming the rain stays away and it's 800F). I promise to give
you a free comprehensive report on Monday.
Seriously, I am chopping at the bit to get my car back from Von's. They
chipped the paint on the shroud and door when the windshield slipped during
a reinstallation after they broke the first one. As I recall from talking
to Joe and seeing pictures he had in the shop, we have the same paint
scheme, but I think your blue (like the later BJ cars) was less silver than
mine. I should be getting it back next week if they can get there work
done. Von said he was going to have to respray the shroud and top half of
the door (cove was OEW). It will be interesting to know how good they
match things up. Fortunately, I still owe him money.
Olin
Raleigh, NC
62 BT7 Tri-Carb
Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 19:21:54 -0400
From: "Mick Vander Ploeg" <mvanderploeg@nc.rr.com>
Subject: I'm OD'ing! + intermittent rough running
In my haste to get my Healey completed & back on the road, I never bothered
to
check whether the overdrive was working. So, of course, it wasn't.
Finally,
after ignoring this fact for a while, I tore things back apart this
weekend,
and after some minor solenoid lever adjustments it's working like a champ.
The first time it engaged, I was shocked at how well it worked. Very
smooth
engagement, and a nice big drop in the RPM's. I never knew what I was
missing.
That would conclude the mechanical portion of my restoration, leaving only
the
top installation & the trunk liner to totally wrap things up. But, the
other
weekend, I was out for a drive & decided to pop in at a friend's house.
After
a 20 minute rest, I got back in the Healey, cranked it up and went on my
way.
As soon as I got up to speed, I noticed that it was running very rough,
especially under load and at higher RPMs (above 3000). Nothing seemed to
help
the situation, and I started becoming concerned whether I'd even make it
home.
Well, this weekend as I was fiddling with the OD, I decided to also dig
into
the rough running situation. I checked the mixture after it warmed up, and
everything seemed fine. I took it out to test the OD, and it ran
perfectly.
I came home and turned it off for a while in a attempt to recreate the
scenario, and it still ran fine after I took it back out.
Should I chalk it up to a freak occurrence, or is there something specific
I
should be looking for to prevent it from happening again? I'd say that
ambient temperature at the time of both drives was the same.
Also, on a totally unrelated note, does anybody happen to know how to
install
a top on a Longbridge BN4? Step by step instructions or a video would be
wonderful.
Thanks,
Mick Vander Ploeg
'57 BN4
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