What continues to strike me is that all the coach fittings on Healey seems
born out of 19th centruy English crafts, the following being the latest of
many suh observations.
The latch mechanisms on 100-4's tend to get wobbly over the years. In
particular, you notice this when you slide the chromed knob vs pull the
draw-wire. Over the weekend I dismantled both of mine to get a bettler look,
and was amused to discover that the construction is virtually identical to the
early 19th century English lockboxes universally found in early New England
houses. In fact, the Healey door locks are really architectural 'cubboard
locks' mounted to a pressed steel support, a fact borne out by the presence of
square post holes in the articulating mechanism designed to receive square
shanks and fitted knobs! The cupboard lock portions (i.e., the working
mechanism) has a lot of soft alloy components, including the thin 'disk' which
is peened into the housing and rotates when you slide the chrome post forward.
We have had quite a few of the 200-year old box locks on our house restored by
a local metal smith, who has since, sadly, closed shop due to heath, but in
years past showed me how to tighten up the fitted brass articulating
'bushings' on our boxlocks (shaped like flat cylinders with a square hole in
the center, and forming the rotating part that engages the slidebars). Often
these were worn to a point that they slipped out of the 0.05" iron sheet bore
into which they had been heat-fitted. His solution was simple: disassemble the
box so the brass was exposed, then grease the brass-iron junction, and strike
the brass firmly on both sides with a 5# hand sledge against an anvil. The
blows, if accurately delivered and not too violent, would slightly swedge the
brass firmly against the sides of iron hole (so in profile the brass
articulating piece would be ever so slightly 'hourglassed' and firmly fitted.
He showed me how to do it myself, and I got the hang of it after a while.
I looked at the M's Healey locks for a good while, and figured I had nothing
to lose because the soft metal bushings were slopping out of the holes and
effectively worthless any way. You can only strike one side because of the box
lock construction, but I went for it anyway. With liberal amounts of grease on
the hammer face and the entire lock assembly, I gave each lock two straight
blows, and was pleased to verify the bushed insert was now firmly housed, and
still rotated. A third blow on each brought them to near-perfectly restored
function.
After reinstalling, the chrome knobs operate the lock perfectly, with no play.
Before, the locks' slidebars would never quite fully open, to the end that you
had to yank hard on the draw wires, and forego any use of the chrome knobs.
If any of you have a similar problem on your 100's, I strongly recommend this.
It seems like a risky business, but the bushing part is so malleable that this
is quite easy to do.
Allen Miller BN2-m
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