Technical Archives
Technical Archives
This page was last updated on $Date: 1999/01/07 01:56:52 $.
The famous British `scuttle shake'. It is in all big Healeys at 55 - 60 MPH. The only cure is to stiffen the body area around the gearbox firewall area. Bad front suspension and/or unbalanced wheels will only make the shake worse but doesn't cause it.
The bug-a-boo is that Jensen spot welded the firewall to the frame and kept spacing out the spots as they built more cars to save labour costs. Geoff used to have get on them to spot weld closer together.
If you exmaine the firewall opening closely, you will find that the sheet metal is spot welded about every four inches. This allows that sheet metal to flex.
The real cure is to weld (while the engine/transmission are out) a bead the full length of the spot welded joints and then weld in 1/2" angle iron in the vertical and horizontal joints on the engine side of the transmission opening. Butt weld the angle iron at the upper left and right corners and weld them to the box frame at the lower left and right ends. You will have to relieve a bit of the angle leg to get around the starter solenoid and the two brackets holding the accelerator linkage crossbar.
This process will eliminate the scuttle shake. I have done it on three tricarbs and my BN2 with great success.
Please send comments, additions, and errors for the SOL Healey web pages to Bob Haskell.
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