If yoy are going to pull it apart, then another thing to check is the carb and manifold flanges to make sure they are flat. This is the 100-4 that I did a while back. I checked it on advise of the guy who rebuilt the carbs and he was right. You can see where the black sharpie did not sand off on the flat surface. They were all like this.
Good tip as always, thanks. I'll go armed with some starting fluid or carb clean later this week or weekend to test my theory before pulling it all apart.
In reply to AxeHealey :
smoke machine is the hot ticket for finding intake and exhaust leaks. Homemade or using a cheap Halloween fog machine.
I spent probably an hour and a half working with the Healey on Saturday and found a couple things.
One - it may seem obvious but I think I really need to wait until it's up to 160 (or higher) to try anything with it. 120-140 ish just ain't cutting it. The only problem is that it takes forever just idling to get there and at this stage it wouldn't be drivable before that. That said, once it got up to 160, I did some baseline tuning and it revved up no problem. Not smooth, but revved up and idled at 1,000.
Two - after having that success, I pulled the bells off and did the blow test - pass. I noticed, however, that the rear carb's needle is not at all centered in the jet. Looks like they're coming off. When I removed that bell, the jet was much further down than in the front carb. Obviously from me trying to richen the mixture up.
There did not seem to be a vacuum leak.
On both Saturday and Sunday I made some good progress on the trailer. I was stupid and didn't order new bushings and the old ones were almost nonexistent so the shackles are just loosely bolted in place, still on jack stands. Seeing a couple fellow GRM'ers have some pretty bad trailer failures convinced me to do this and I'm glad I did.
The wiring definitely needs to be redone so I've got both 14 gauge wire and the bushings on order. We've been making a list for Home Depot so we can minimize trips but once I get there I'll grab some primer and paint to clean up the wheel wells also. Wheel bearings seem good though!
I replaced the plugs in Elmore this morning. Who knows when they were last done. Some weren't too bad, others were pretty terrible.
Tomorrow I'll do the automotive thing I am dreading most at the moment - pull the carbs back off the Healey. Ugh.
My last trailer had the u bolts and shackles rusted paper thin, so i did all of them. My current trailer has a broken shackle and i got some beefy ones for it
In reply to Patrick (Forum Supporter) :
Your trailer issues were part of my inspiration.
Carbs are off. I left a gentle reminder for when I go to start the Healey and wonder why it won't work.
New steering wheel fits! Now I have to figure out how to get the center section to stay straight and what pieces I need for the horn.
In reply to AxeHealey :
That steering wheel looks great!
...and you're now making me think I should go give my trailer a once-over.
In reply to artur1808 :
Thanks! I'm really happy to have the Grant gone.
I would definitely spend some time looking the trailer over. Even if there's nothing wrong, it'll help for piece of mind.
Yesterday was beautiful, today was not supposed to be. Some would say that I procrastinated yesterday. I would say I took advantage of circumstances. The trailer suspension is all back together and my wife's car has her summer wheels and tires back on. Today was back to reality.
\
Both carbs disassembled, the front one cleaned and starting to go back together.
This is the same ping pong table on which I first rebuilt them however many years ago so I hope that brings some good mojo to the equation.
Front carb fully reassembled, just will need dashpot oil.
I used 2-in-1 oil last time around and it seemed to work but it feels quite thin this time around. I've heard of using ATF, what say the SU people?
Big engine car like your Healey ATF may be too thin. 2 in 1 was too thin. When the cars were new the recommendation was 30 weight. I would try ATF first and change to motor oil if you have a stumble on tip in such as a bad throttle pump produces in a Weber.
I will be honest, in the 50 years I have been playing with SU carbs I have indiscriminately dumped in everything except maybe maple syrup. Thin and liquid seems to work.
Motorcycle shock oil seems to be the recommended fluid, but like who has that on the shelf? ATF should work fine.
Pete
Thanks guys, I appreciated the direction as always. I'll start with ATF and see where I land. Should have time tonight to at least get the rear carb all cleaned up and ready for reassembly.
Carbs are done...again. This weekend will be the big test.
Well. I think it's clear that my vacation-built carbs were just fine. Threw them on this afternoon, same old s**t. I let it run for about 4 minutes and then had a silly thought... What if... maybe juuust maybe, the muffler is directional and I put it on backwards and it's got too much back pressure. No.
Then I had a more intelligent thought. "Hm, Andrew, it really sounds like it's missing a few cylinders. Why don't you check spark." I pulled the wire for the number one plug and tested continuity between the screw in the cap and the plug clip. Nada. Interesting.
I take the wire off the cap and test continuity. Nada. WTF. I take the 90 degree end off (part that clips to the plug) and test the wire for continuity. Good. I test the screw in the connector to the clip on the connector. Nada.
OK. WT literal F.
Call my Healey buddy he goes - "Oh yeah, those right angle black caps have little resistors that blow all the time. They shouldn't even be sold.". Apparently the resistors get hot and blow.
Welp. A lot of work for a faulty part but it makes me feel better. I had such a hard time figuring how it ran so great when I first started it and then a couple months later it was terrible.
A little bit of wisdom thrown my way today: Most carburetor problems are electrical.
Oh and Elmore is now wearing this steering wheel that I traded the Grant for. Need one of the spring contacts for the horn.
AxeHealey said:Thanks guys, I appreciated the direction as always. I'll start with ATF and see where I land. Should have time tonight to at least get the rear carb all cleaned up and ready for reassembly.
I run https://www.marvelmysteryoil.com/products/marvel-mystery-oil/ in my triple 2" SU HD8's. I do require quick acceleration and I'm at idle very little.....
Thanks for the tip, Doug. When this thing gets a hot rebuild, I'll probably take your advice.
I'm hoping to break away from house work this evening and get over to the shop to do the spark plug wires and give it a test fire. This weekend, my wife and daughter (see: social distancing) are going to come with me and help me do the final bleed of the brakes and clutch so that I can really mark the Healey FINISHED.
Well. It still runs like crap. There's no question those ends were bad but there's at least something else going on here. I had about 2 hours to spare (including driving to the shop) yesterday so I wasn't able to troubleshoot but here are my thoughts/plan of attack - please poke holes, etc.
Aside from it jumping timing or having a stuck valve or the like, I'm really thinking this has to be an electrical issue. It ran SO good the first handful of times, it's got to be electrical, right?
EDIT - I've also considered that there's a possibility that the tank coating wasn't fully cured when I poured gas in and it's now gummed up the lines/clogged the filter. The issue with that thought is that it would still probably idle smoothly if it had the ability to idle at all. Maybe, maybe not.
In reply to AxeHealey :
Know your ignition is perfect before you look at anything fuel related. That is a general rule for anything, but doubled for Lucas! If you have a Lucas coil with spade type primary connections that are riveted on, clean and solder them. I had a customer Healey 35 years ago with an intermittent performance problem that I was only able to diagnose when it missbehaved at night
Tiny little sparks.....
Back when I did the bugeye I had to go to a hotter plug because the ones spec'd were fouled. Dont know if it was a modern fuel thing or what, but it ran fine at first but fouled the plugs and drove me mad for a while. New plugs and getting rid of the retarded "bumblebee" plug wires fixed it up. Not running solid core copper wires by chance are you?
Two other things that have caused me grief over the years: Bad rotor that was shorting to the distributor shaft. Diagnosed by holding the coil wire to the metal strip on the rotor while cranking. Any spark and it fails cause grounding on the shaft.
Bad condenser. No idea how to diagnose, I was just tossing parts at that time.
Valves still holding a setting?
In reply to TurnerX19 :
I encountered a similar thing with my E28. I had an intermittent starting issue that took being in my friends dark garage one night seeing a spark jumping from a ground.
Thanks for the tip on the coil - it is an old Lucas, not sure if they're riveted.
In reply to NOHOME :
Plugs are definitely my first check. For maybe the first time ever, I'm really hoping to find badly fouled plugs. Not solid core, copper stranded.
I thought a bad condenser was kind of an on/off switch?
No clue about the valves, to be honest. One seemed to be making some noise when it was running well so maybe it's now stuck or way out of whack. Right now it's running so poorly there's no noises to hear and I'd like to avoid pulling the now glued-on rocker cover if I can. Certainly will if I need to.
I need to make more house progress tonight/this week but I'm going to make sure to break free and spend time with the Healey.
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