Our Jensen Healey restore project, many questions.

[03RedSRT4]

So we got our mits on a 73 Jensen Healy. Nice car, but it's in major need of TLC. We have the Delta Motorsports mag, but I have a question. Is this our only source for parts? I was going to get a timing belt and no one seems to know what a Jensen Healey is. I spoke with 3 people and they all wanted to know what the Make and model were, I told them it's a 73 Jensen Healey w/ a 2.0 Lotus 907. They acted if I was speaking "English-English" (Austin Powers joke)

Timing belt: Rock Auto and Delta, can I buy from a store and not have to wait on S&H?
Plugs: NGK BPR6ES? What about Copper 4306's? Too cold?

I have researched coolant, and no where did I find a recommendation. Just normal stuff or Water Wetter? I know the newer cars have compatibility concerns.

 

[JodyFKerr]

Delta is pretty much the source for parts in the US. Martin Robey is the sourxe in the UK. Engine specific bits can be obtained from them, or also from any number of Lotus suppliers. The 4 speed is a chrysler unit the 5 speed a getrag one. Parts for the former are hard to get. Parts for the latter can be ordered from any BMW dealer providing you have the BMW part #.

Anywhere else and you'll get that same response.... "a Jensen what? Were those made by....". You're best off calling Delta when you need something. Jim is very knowedgable and will answer technical questions as well.

As to coolant, go for a normal 50/50 coolant mix. Don't put in water wetter if you can avoid it (you've been on jhps.com too if you're mentioning that). It's only to be used as a last ditch effort to keep a car cool.

If you want a lot of readimg material i can make you a copy of the White Lady magazines on cd. It was the old JH magazine. I've been meaning to convert them to html and put them on the web.

 

[JodyFKerr]

Now. Waking up a Jensen Healey.

#1. change the cam belt. This is supposed to be changed every 18,000 miles.
#2. check the fuel T between the carburetors. If it's plastic rip it out, throw it away, and replace it with a metal one. Many JH's were lost to fires cause by brittleplastic.
#3. brakes. You can still get rebuild kits for the JH Master cylinder, providing that the plastic resevoir isn't shot. If it is you can replace it with a TR6 MC. Rear drum brakes were either Lockheed or Girling. Make sure to figure out what you've got before ordering parts. Also the rear drums are paper thin on the face. Do not go whacking them with a hammer unless you want to buy new drums.
#4. I'll assume you have Stromberg carbs. remove the fuel bowls on the carbs and clean out any gunk. There is a push in plug on the bottom. Pop it out and replace the O-ring. It will leak. The top of the carbs (dashpots) need oil in them to work correctly. Top them up with some light oil.

That should allow you to safely start and stop the car.

The rest is much like doing the Impala, just on a much smaller scale.

Do you plan on doing this car as a rolling restoration, or are you guys going to complete tear it down and redo it?

 

[03RedSRT4]

Oh totally, we would love some of the magazine information. Old photos and reviews are always awesome, as well ad the ads for, now obsolete, upgrades and performance parts. I travel often, being in the Military, and we are leaving an a few days for a trip from here near the Mex border to Sacramento, then Seattle, then Salt Lake City. We plan on hitting the antique shops as always. Last year in Seattle I got a copy of "Motor Life" from September 1956, and it's got some awesome nostalgia in there.

 

[03RedSRT4]

For the time being it's at my uncles house. We do not have a garage to do work in, as here in El Centro only new houses have garages. That in mind, we are simply doing a mild restoration right now, with bigger future plans when money and geography find a happy medium. My dad lives in Sacramento, 11 hours north of me. Our immediate goal is to get her road worthy, and asses the current situation, making a restoration path with paint and body work last. Some spray paint might get us into a non-embarrassing appearance while we get her running top notch. We will be happy with a good running car, even if the seats are shredded and the top is falling apart.

 

[03RedSRT4]

I am taking Jody's advice, in effort to get off on the right foot with this project. I ordered a new fuel tee and timing belt and they will arrive at my dad's house Thursday. Being re-stationed every few years I have never acquired a tool box, so I have 3 duffel bags of tools and a floor jack packed and accounted for. We will inspect the brakes when we I get there, as we do not know their condition, nor plan on driving it much, as it is in non-op status. Delta Motorsports was very nice and I look forward to future business with them.

 

[03RedSRT4]

We got the fuel tee kit and belt in today, and it came with some papers regarding the repair. Unfortunately it raised more questions in my head than it answered. I misunderstood my dad, and when he told me he had the "Book" he thought I was talking about the Delta Catalog. Where can I get the repair manual, and is it possible to download online? I searched and got no more better results than ads sending me in circles. My main focus right now is properly replacing the belt, without altering timing. How do I know when Cyl 1 is at TDC? The pages I received with the belt do not state what book they are from. They are just "page 24 and 25." We plan on taking pictures and posting them tomorrow. Does anyone have a link or diagram? I understand the timing marks are on the inlet and exhaust sprocket and need to be lined up, but do they need to be a tooth or half tooth off prior to tensioning?

EDIT: Found this: https://www.jensenhealey.com/tech/bearing/bearing.html reading now.

Okay, so if I am not changing anything other than the belt, I just loosen tention, with CYL #1 at TDC, slide it off, and slide the new on? Is it that easy? It can't be that easy, that would break the laws of gravity or something and Chuck Norris might die.

 

[PC]

Hi, <span style="font-weight: bold">03RedSRT4</span>! Welcome to the party!

Always great to see more Jensen Healeys being resurrected.

The JH shop manual is available from Jensen Healey Parts & Spares. I'm sure Delta has them too.

Jensen Healey Parts & Spares originally started out as the JH club store and sold some bit and pieces that were really handy but hard to find and not generally available. It sort of gained a life of its own and grew from there.

It doesn't replace Delta, they've always been and remain the primary source for JH stuff. It just adds some extra hard to find goodies and way to get some popular stuff online.

And by the way, I think <span style="font-style: italic">every </span>JH owner should join the club.

Don't worry about Chuck, to change out the timing belt you'll need to remove the crankshaft pulley. There's a guard cast into the block the prevents the belt from slipping off while the crank pulley is in place.

Some pulleys pop off easily. Others get stuck on and need a puller. Some of the pulleys even have threaded holes in them that make using a puller easier.

There are marks on the cam pulleys that line up when the motor's at TDC.


pc

 

[JodyFKerr]

Yeah, that's basically it.

Loosen the Alt. And remove the belt (you should be able to get a new alt belt just about anywhere if you bring the belt providing it needs replacement)

Remove any cam belt covers that are on your car. (many get lost along the way).

Set to TDC. At this point I use a little whiteout to mark pulley alignment against the block just in case i accidentally move something.

Crank pulley bolt doesn't always want to come loose. I've found that a broom handle, jammed against the ground under the car on the left hand side of the pulley and then pulled against the pulley towards the right puts enough pressure to quickly get the bolt loose.

Remove bolt & pulley. While you have the belt out of the car check all of your pulleys for wear. In particular the cam power pulleys. One lage/use issues with these cars is that the pulley grooves start to wear and can lead to jumped teeth. Your car is probably ok, but may as well check them while they are easy to see.

Set new belt in place. Double check your alignment markings. Then it's just tightening up the crank bolt and putting the covers and Alt belt back in place.

Definitely get yourself the manual. Though, i'll warn you, readability wasn't their main concern when it was written. . Paper is available from Delta or JHPS. I think I have seen Roms on Ebay.

If you need to see a formal parts catalog you can start here:
https://www.theymightberacing.com/PartsCatalog/PartsCatalogBrowse.aspx. the pictures aren't huge, but it's more correct than the original.

Jody

 

[03RedSRT4]

Thank you Jodi and Thank you PC! My dad is going to join the preservation society. He has some JHPS pamphlets I was reading through. Those Thackey Washers in the March 2008 edition are quite different. We are going to try our hand at the belt replacement tomorrow morning, and I will snap some pictures along the way. I like to document everything I do with photos. If you are bored, here my thread I made when I broke my input shaft in my SRT transmission. Anyone with a Dodge sprinter might recognize it. It's a hefty little 5 speed, and it tops me out just over 160. I took lots of pictures: https://www.srtforums.com/forums/f213/broken-input-shaft-need-advice-591287/

We appreciate the tips, and I have a white paint marker I will put to use. My dad says we have the belt cover (or covers) and I will make importance of it to care for it and reinstall it, as I see they do go missing often.

 

[03RedSRT4]

Progress! My dad said the key was stuck in the ignition. I found the release button. Nice. We replaced the timing belt. It was the easiest timing belt we had ever done. We were amazed at how simple it was. The cylinder on top of the metering needle was not moving freely when starting the car, the rear carb was much smoother and the piece went up and down as we cranked the motor. As shown in the location of the large arrow here:

The threads are stripped on the black top to the front carb, and after attempting to start it, if we lift the item in the throat of the carb feul travels left to right along this gasket:

I believe the carb has a vacuum leak here, and may need a gasket:

Very odd air filter can:

The gas tank is rusted through the bottom. Needs repair/replace.

Interrior:

 

[JodyFKerr]

Regarding the carbs. Did you fill the dashpots with light oil? Underneath those black plastic screw on caps is a small resevoir. It needs to be filled with oil for the carburetor to work correctly. It is possoble that the sticking you describe can be caused by this.

 

[03RedSRT4]

I put a drop in each, I didn't know they had to be filled. My cousin was asking me the same thing. We will and try it out. What oil might you suggest? Marvel Mystery oil? Or a weighted oil?

 

[JodyFKerr]

I'm certain someone will come along with a strong opinion, but I've basically used what's handy. I think mine presently have 10W30 or 20W50 in them. Whatever i used on the last oil change.

 

[swift6]

Don't fill them to the top. They don't need much. Enough that when you put the damper rod (the part attached to that black plastic cap) sees some resistance about 1/4" from starting to thread them back in.

There is a specific oil for ZS and SU carbs that you can get from the usual suppliers, but there are several "rules of thumb". Some use engine oil matching what's in the crankcase, other use ATF and others yet use 3 in 1 oil. They all effect tuning a little differently.

 

[DrEntropy]

It'd be silly to worry over viscosity in the dampers at this point. Toss whatever you have handy in 'em!

 

[03RedSRT4]

We pulled the gas tank. It is rusted through on the bottom, though the rust hole is smaller than a quarter, but there is plenty more cancer to worry about. We will look at replacing vs. repairing it. It's on the bottom, so no one will see any repair work. I have some oil and starting fluid, were gonna see if we can get her to run this morning. I cleaned the electrical connections everywhere, to make sure we were getting good connections. The ignition coil is cracked on the top, I don't know if that effects its operation. I hear there is a place in So Cal that converts them to solid points or something. Any advice in it?

 

[PC]

Rusted out gas tanks are very common.

The normal failure mode is that the seal around the gas filler leaks. Since it's in a that little depression, water pools there and then runs past the seal, onto the tank and finally into the fiber pad that the tank rests on.

The fiber pad gets soaked and hold water against the tank and floor panel, accelerating corrosion.

After getting the tank (and maybe the floor panel) repaired and sealed, don't use another fiber pad (a.k.a. a friggin big sponge) below the tank.

Some guys have fabricated plastic stand offs that hold up the tank and allow air circulation. I think at least one guy said he just used strips of Romex. (I'm not saying that's a good or bad idea, just repeating a rumor I heard.)

There have been a couple attempts at replacement tanks over the years. Quite a while back, somebody was selling stainless steel tanks. Sounds like a great idea but apparently he never figured out how to form the seams correctly and they all leaked.

More recently, someone was making aluminum replacement tanks. Ive heard both positive and negative comments about them. I can't say I was impressed with the one I saw.

Ignition coils are easy enough to come by and aren't very expensive. A lot of guys upgrade to aftermarket coils.

Replacing the points with a Pertronix Ignitor electronic ignition is very popular.

MSD ignitions are a pretty popular upgrade too but it's also common for the tach to not work with and MSD.



pc

 

[JodyFKerr]

I concur on the fibre rust accellerator under the tank. You can also lay non-porus rubber mat underneath. I found when I put in dynamat extreme it closed up the gap as well.

The old and new aluminum tank builder are the same guy. Jorge, he lists the tanks on ebay. Early qualitu wasn't great, but the new ones are uch better. He's in California down near San Diego. Stock steel tanks are available from Delta but are pricey. At least $300. I'd recommend getting a local repair estimate first. Aldo get the tank sealed at the same time.

Regarding dizzy/coil/etc. Go to Jeff at advance distributor and get the pertronics unit prebuilt into a fresh distributor. Pricey, but worth it and Jeff really knows what he's doing. In addition to that Delta sells the magnecor 8mm wires (stock is 7mm). Pair those with a flamethrower coil and you will be really happy.

I'm present getting a prototype crank fired kit for the Jensen Healey documented and pretty enough for use (also doing fuel injection too). It's a nice upgrade, but there's a fair bit of cost/fabrication to get it working well. The main issue with the tach is that the MSD needs to have power run through it to the tach and back again. It can be annoying to do.

Jody

 

[03RedSRT4]

Thanks for the info, I had mentioned it when we pulled the tank, it wasn't a good place for padding, below the tank. I believe I have isolated our major problem with regards to performance. The front carburetor, does not seem to work, all the lines are hooked up, and I verified it is receiving fuel, but the center piece does not move as freely as the rear one, and when idling will not move at all, on its own, if I stick my screwdriver under it to lift it a bit, the car dies and that carb shoots a small cloud of blue smoke. We put oil in the dashpots, and it seems to have helped the rear carb. I am wondering, is this something we can rebuild, or is the carburetor something best left to a professional? I know my way around My Edelbrock, but this one looks like it has many more parts to it.