Hello Greg:
My first Austin Healey, a 100, that I bought used in 1956 at a dealer near
Poughkeepsie NY, needed a valve job before driving it back home to Los
Angeles. I parked it in a shed, with no door and the snow always blew in and
covered things. I pulled the head and took it and the valves next door to a
gas station that had a hand valve grinder. You placed the valve in a clamp and
turned the crank! I ground all of the valves that way and then used the
wooden stick with a rubber cup on the end to lap in the valves with the
grinding compound. Putting everything back together was a cold process in the
middle of January but one that had to be completed quickly for my IBM Corp.
training class was ending and my apartment was to be let to a new student.
Three days after completing the valves my new wife of two months and I loaded
all that we owned on the luggage rack that I had constructed and headed for
California. I drove the car for about 10,000 miles before trading for another
and there were never any problems or loss of performance due to valves.
Provided the valve seats don't need replacement or there are valve guide
problems, grinding the valves can be a relatively simple job. I was twenty
six years old and not very much up on auto repairs. My skill was using an M1
in the USMC in Korea. I just blindly went at it and it worked out fine. You
should do it and you will have a fond memory.
Gale Hess
BJ8 San Diego
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