Hi Bruce,
If you are familiar with working on cars you should be able to handle
quite a bit of the project.
First, get a good shop manual, Moss has some, & study it thoroughly.
Check compression to get an idea of engine condition. I would expect a
"good" BT7 to have 160 psi or better.
Check ignition timing. Retarded timing can cause quite a power loss. The
vacuum advance shouldn't have too much affect on power. It will give
better fuel economy while cruising. Someone will likely give you a lead
on rebuilding vacuum units.
I would expect the BT7 to have more low end power than a TR-250. Enough
to easily spin the tires on dry pavement if you so desired.
There are a lot of parts vendors both here & in the UK. Everyone has
their favorites. Moss & British Car Specialists of Stockton come to
mind. Denis Welch, UK, has a lot of good performance oriented parts.
Others may list many more.
http://www.britishcarspecialists.com/sitemap.html
http://www.bighealey.co.uk/
It's not exactly easy to pull the engine & transmission since they are
pretty heavy & the aluminum panels surrounding the engine are delicate.
It can of course be done if you have a mind to. Once you get the engine
out finding a stopping point is hard. "Shame to go to all of that work &
not do a complete rebuild" & such.
You will get a lot of good help from this list. Also consider joining a
local club & one or both of the National AH clubs. Their magazines &
advertisers alone are worth the price.
http://www.serve.com/AHCA/
http://www.healey.org/index.shtml
A huge list of vendors:
http://www.dimebank.com/monster/vendors.html
You can go here & search the previous messages of this list for answers
to a lot of questions:
http://www.team.net/archive/healeys
Good Healeying,
Dave Russell
BN2
BRUCE HARDING wrote:
> I just picked up a 61 BT7 and have a few questions...
>
> The car doesn't seem to have much grunt when starting from a
> standing start. Tonight I found that the vacuum unit on the
> distributor wouldn't hold vacuum, the carbs were out of synch, the
> front carb had no oil in the damper and the back one was running
> slightly lean. After I made the changes the rain started to come
> down hard so I didn't take it for a test ride. So here are the
> questions:
>
> 1) Is there somebody that rebuilds the vacuum units? It's an early
> model and according to Moss as NLA 2) Should the AH have as much low
> end torque as my Triumph TR250? 3) Is there a list of parts vendors?
> 4) How difficult is it to pull the motor and trans? I'd like to
> detail the engine compartment and it appears to do it right I need to
> do this.
>
> Thanks for any advise! Bruce Harding 61 AH 3000 BT7
|