The Austin-Healey drives again! | Kyle's Garage - Episode 17 - Hagerty Media
The little blue Healey was a crime of opportunity to purchase, and my goal was to show that affordable fun cars still exist. I think I failed on that goal, but in the end I do still have a car ready for adventure with a relatively small financial investment. It all required a larger time and knowledge investment than I expected, but luckily a lot of the heavy lifting is now done.
That is to say, the engine is back in the roadster and I took it for a drive. The first step in the process was to reassemble the accessory drive. The worn-out water pump that I caught when I pulled the engine out was a failure waiting to happen, so I bolted up a new one along with a used, but in better shape, plastic radiator fan. The generator was the last piece of the accessories and also serves as the belt tensioner. Improper tension is likely what cause premature wear on the water pump, so a careful adjustment there should keep this car cool and reliable for years to come.
Then I moved on to stabbing in a new Pertronix distributor. The points had left me stranded twice, and with the goal of having a car I can loan out without second thought, an electronic upgrade was spending money for peace of mind. Replacing the whole distributor as a unit also makes sense to me because that means no worn out bushings or tired advance unit causing issues. Fix it once, fix it right.
However, I got one thing wrong while installing that new distributor. I rotated the engine to where cylinder one was at top dead center, marked the orientation of the rotor inside the dizzy, and plucked out the old and stuck in the new. What I did wrong was not take into consideration that I could have been on top dead center of the exhaust stroke, meaning when I placed the spark plug wires I was putting them on the wrong distributor cap terminals.
Once I accounted for this possibility, everything went swimmingly. The car started right up and ran down the road nicely. The throwout bearing made zero noise and the transmission shifted with familiar light and long throws.
It’s running and driving again, but I’m not about to call this project done. For starters, I backed my pickup truck over the exhaust that was removed during disassembly. Interior needs some love, too. All projects for another episode of Kyle’s Garage.
