We have been through quite a lot of shop time fitting the Dennis Welch
harmonic damper to the front end of the M. I wanted to pass this along some of
the considerations to those of you who are considering doing it.
1. The mounting holes are alternately for 6 cylinder and 4 cylinder
cranks. unfortunately, the degree markings only line up on 6 cylinder cars. if
you want to use the permanent 1 degree timing tape, you would have to remount
it. We were not convinced it would reattach relably, so we left it in place
and painted it over with new TDC and offset markings.
2. Totally disregard the sketch that comes with the balancer. It suggests
a frame cut in the cross member to allow for clearance of the balancer. That
is no doubt a concern on the 6 cylinder engines because of the engine's
closeness to the cross rail, but there is more than ample clearance on the 100
(5+ inches), and the only clearance concern is a degree of proximity of the
forward tips of the hand cranking lug to your radiator fins.We haven'tfit the
radiator yet, but it looks like a go with acceptable clearance.
3. You have to adapt to the narrow belt pulleys to install the balancer,
which is a good idea. However, the holes of the stock aluminum AH 100 fan are
closer to the centerpoint by a good bitand do not line up with the holes in
the DW water pump pulley. The only work around if you want to keep the
original fan is to fill the holes on the pulley with allumalloy, redrill and
retap or use a helicoil thread. This is not as big a hassle as it sounds,
because there is a tight-fitting projection in the pulley which automatically
aligns the fan and the pulley concentrically.
4. With the combined costs of the balancer and the pulley set, particularly
with the dollar/pound conversion, it is an expensive conversion. I have had
conflicting advice from respected Healey authorities on whether it is
essential, even in racing applications, to have the balancer.
Check out the new British Cars Forum:
http://www.team.net/the-local/tiki-view_forum.php?forumId=8
|