Tag Archives: Anti-sway Bar

Suspension/Axle

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The Original Front Suspension

The front suspension used coil springs, a 5/8” anti-sway bar, rubber bushings and Armstrong lever shocks.

 Front Suspension Modifications

Tube Shocks

I had the front shocks rebuilt by World Wide Auto Parts http://www.nosimport.com/, but decided to install Bilstein Tube shocks supplied in Udo Putzke’s Fahrspass http://www.putzkes-fahrspass.com/Eng/kits.html Tube Shock Kit. I ave been very pleased with the performance of the shocks. This is a document describing the installation: Putzkes Fahrspass Tube Shock Kit.

Blistein Tube Shocks

Blistein Tube Shocks

Anti-sway Bar

I replaced the standard 5/8″ bar with a heavy duty 7/8″ sway bar with poly bushing and rose joint links sourced from Cape International. http://www.cape-international.com/

Anti-Sway Bar

Anti-Sway Bar

Poly Bushings

All of the front suspension rubber bushings were replaced with poly bushings purchased from Putzke’s Fahrspass http://www.putzkes-fahrspass.com/Eng/BigHealey_poly_page.htm   Lubricating poly bushes is important. The image below illustrates the proper lubricating surfaces.

Putzke's poly bush lubrication

Putzke’s poly bush lubrication

Coil Springs

At the recommendation of others, I replaced the BT7 springs with springs from the BJ8.

Front Lowering Kit

I like a slightly more aggressive look accomplished by lowering the front end so I purchased a lowering kit from Denis Welch Motorsport http://www.bighealey.co.uk/content/lowering-kit. When you lower the front end it is also necessary to add a spacer to the rubber bump stop. This was also sourced from Denis Welch http://www.bighealey.co.uk/content/bump-stop-spacers-and-tube-nuts.

Lowering Kit

Lowering Kit

 Ball Joint Dust Covers

Rubber components in today’s restoration world are often very poor quality. Someone on the Healey list serve discovered that Hyundai ball joint covers, past #56828-21010, are of superior quality to that available for the Healey. I ordered and used them and they worked perfectly!

Tie Rod Dust Seals

Tie Rod Dust Seals

Original Rear Suspension/Axle

 Semielliptic leaf springs, solid axle with transverse panhard rod, 3.909 rear differential

 Rear Suspension/Axle Modifications

Tube Shocks

As with the front shocks, I decided to install Bilstein Tube shocks supplied in Udo Putzke’s Fahrspass http://www.putzkes-fahrspass.com/Eng/kits.html Tube Shock Kit in the rear. I ave been very pleased with the performance of the shocks. This is a document describing the installation: Putzkes Fahrspass Tube Shock Kit.

Bilstein Tube Shock

Bilstein Tube Shock

Rear Leaf Springs

Having used the Jule Enterprises frame, I also decided on Martin Jansen’s custom made leaf springs. They worked perfectly. Ride is great and the car sits nicely with the proper gap between the tires and the body. Martin’s springs use BJ8 mounting hardware.

Leaf Spring

Leaf Spring

Rear Differential Gears

Many Healey owners who converted to the Toyota 5-speed gearboxes suggest that the 3.54 gears in the rear end make for a nice combination. Mike Lempert, who makes Healey steering wheels also arranged for the manufacture of the 3.54 gear sets. I was fortunate to be able to purchase a set and install them in the Bloody Beast.

Lempert 3.54 Gears

Lempert 3.54 Gears

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Chapter 68 Week Thirty-Eight September 3, 2007

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Since I am using rally bumpers on the “Bloody Beast” rather than the standard rear bumper, I needed to develop a custom rear license plate bracket. I combined the stock bracket with a later BJ8 bracket that provides a space for the Lucas license plate lamp. All of this was a little heavy to hang on just the two holes in the rear of the aluminum shroud, so I fabricated a small steel plate to mount inside the shroud and sandwiched the shroud with two homemade gaskets of 1/16” black rubber. The assembly looks nice and I think provides a satisfactory solution given the lack of a bumper on which to mount it.

License Plate Bracket 1

License Plate Bracket 3

Having taken the car off the wooden dollies I had made to transport it from my home to Maple Hill Restoration, I was able to get to the lower part of the front suspension and install the Cape International 3/4” anti-sway bar.

Anti-Sway Bar hardware

Anti-sway bar mounted 1

 

Chapter 19 – Cleaning and Trial Fitting

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May 28, 2004

Front Splash Panels 

Splash Panels – Installed left and right splash panels. I needed to drill 4 new holes on each side of the car in the frame uprights. The left side was difficult and took some hammering and grinding but eventually got it to fit. Use 8 #10 1/2” pan screws to secure.

Right splash panel 1

Right splash panel 2

Radiator Air Deflector – Installed radiator air deflector with two 5/16” x 5/8” bolts.

Air deflector 3

Air deflector 1

Bonnet Upright Brackets – Note the way they are mounted in the photos.

RH Bonnet opening brace 2

LH Bonnet opening brace 3

Front Wing Mounting Brackets – Installed left and right front wing support brackets using 4 1/4” x 3/4” hex head bolts.

RH Shroud bracket 1

LH Shroud bracket 2

June 18, 2004

Rear Axle Revisited 

Differential – Installed the differential pumpkin and bearing caps in the differential casing. I will be installing the 3.44 crown and pinion in the car when it is drivable, but to get a rolling chassis I just put the old differential back in with no pinion gear. Fastened the differential to the axle and inserted the half shafts and tightened them down with the small locating flat head screws. Affixed the rear brake disc rotors and calipers fastened the hub extensions to the axle with the 5 locking hub nuts.

Installing the Rear Axle – After removing the fuel pump and the left bump box we “walked” the axle with the differential into the chassis and superstructure. I may have been able to leave the fuel pump had we had more access room on the right side of the car, but that wasn’t available. I then secured the axle with the Ubolts and the brackets for the tube shocks. The key here is to start each side loosely and then return to fully tighten each side. I never could get the tube shocks to align with the brackets and Udo Putzke thinks it may be because the Jule frame is slightly different than the original AH frame. To his credit he has agreed to make some longer shaft shocks at cost – great customer service!

Bilsteins won’t align

Spring Work

Rear Brake Hose – Added the new stainless braided brake hose between the brake line and the rear junction on the axle.

Stainless Rear Brake line

This work allowed me to put the car on the ground as a rolling chassis for the first time – a significant milestone. In honor of the occasion I stuck on two fenders and placed a seat in the interior for photos. All just for fun. It lasted ten minutes and then off came the wheels/tires and wings and then back up on jack stands for more work! The shiny bonnet is a sample paint color that I would ultimately not use.

Four 0n the Floor 1

1st sitting

1st sitting 5

Driving Light and Tow Brackets – I received the front spotlight and tow hook brackets from Cape International and the rear bumperette (sprite) or Rally Car brackets and “bumpers.”  I discovered that Martin Jansen had not included the threaded tubes for the front bumper that go through the frame. Instead Martin’s are only on the outside of the frame rails which is fine for the bumper brackets, but the spotlight tow hook brackets also have one mounting hole on the inside of the frame rails. I located the holes on the inside of the rail with  3/8” drilled hole and will get Jeremy Turner to add threaded tubes later in the restoration. I also received Kilmartin panels for the frame rails that include the welded nuts for the anti-sway bar and I will give them to Jeremy as well.

Driving light tow hook bracket

Driving Light frame Hole

anti-sway bar frame bracket

Horns – Started on the horn installation. The original horns for the Mark I are no longer available so I used the later version. The older horns must have been a little smaller in diameter, because the horns rubbed against the splash panels when connected with the brackets I had. I modified the brackets by adding a mounting hole and grinding off a bit of the bracket to “shift” the horns toward the center of the car. All of this seemed to work flawlessly, but once again I encountered a job that probably should have taken 10 minutes that ended up taking two hours. The horn wiring harness extensions provided by British Wiring were not needed so I crimped some new connectors on the wire in place of the original bullet connectors and attached them to the horns. The new horns were interesting – both brand new – one gloss black and one satin. I will have Jeremy repaint them.

Horn install left

June 18, 2004

Fuel Sender Unit – Installed the fuel sender unit in the new aluminum fuel tank. The sender unit did not line up exactly as the original because the holes in the tank are not as they were in the steel tank. I sealed the sender unit with a new cork gasket and with Hylomar. Each of the small mounting screws received new copper washers.

Fuel sender unit

New Fuel Tank – Secured the new fuel tank with the two securing straps which I had slightly lengthened to make the fit better. The securing straps fastened to the rear boot wall with brackets and clevis pins.

Aluminum Fuel Tank

Spare tire fitment

Spare Tire Block and Bracket – Installed the new stainless steel spare tire bracket and tie down bar. I had to make a new vinyl covered block to fit on the back boot wall to accommodate the higher spare tire and the slight rise that was “built in” by Martin Jansen. Turned out pretty well. I actually used old naugahyde from my original reupholstery work on the car 20+ years ago!

Spare tire bracket and block 1

spare tire bracket and block 2

Spare Tire Block covering

Fuel Filler Pipe – Installed the fuel pipe rubber gasket on the rear shroud. Lightly smeared Vaseline on the lower section of the fuel pipe and pushed it through the gasket into the boot. The  Aston Cap is secured to the fuel tube with a threaded brass collar. David Nock advised that I should fasten the collar to the tube by reversing the ends and brazing the collar to the tube’s unfinished end. Then I cut off the old cap end to put into the rubber sleeve to connect to the tank neck.

Aston filler Cap 1

Aston threaded collar

Fuel tube cut off

Aston fuel cap on pipe

Steering Cross Bar – After discovering that the new cross bar for the steering was for a BJ8 I ordered new ends and installed the original cross rod. I probably could have used the BJ8 bar but it looked like the original provided a little more adjustment which I think I needed.

Cross rod right

Cross rod left

 

Anti-sway Bar Installation

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Anti-sway Bar

After waiting for quite a while for delivery of an anti-sway bar, we installed it with minimal effort.  We were somewhat disappointed that the links to the wishbone touched the inner side of wheel when turned to full lock. Called Tom Colby at Speedwell Racing that manufactured the bar to see if we had made an installation mistake. He said, “No, just don’t turn the wheels to full lock position!” Couldn’t believe it because Speedwell Engineering is a very reputable race car prep shop.

Installation instructions were provided by Speedwell. With everything clean, we did a careful visual inspection of the frame rails, anti roll bar mounting pads, and the lower control arms.  It is a very good idea to weld the frame rail seams and also weld completely the mounting pads, which are only partially welded by the factory.  It is very common to have the lower frame rails tear themselves apart from the heavy cornering forces.  With this done, we ran a 5/16 X 24 tap through the mounting pads to insure good clean threads to attach the anti roll bar to the frame.  We then installed the bar to the frame.

The bar may be mounted to the frame with the car raised in the air but the rest of the installation must be done within car at its ride height.  We slid the Delrin bushes onto the anti roll bar and then mounted the bar using the pillow blocks supplied.  We center the anti roll bar and locked down the shaft collars after it was centered.  The anti-roll bar should move somewhat freely in order for it to function properly.   We then installed a rod-end into one end of the anti-roll bar and attached a corresponding bracket.  Then, we swung the bracket up to the lower control arm and positioned it so that the link was vertical.  This is where the 3/8 inch bolt holes should be drilled and bolted to the A-arm.  Now we did the same to the other side.  With the driver in the car the links should be adjusted so that there is no pre-load on them.  Finally, we tightened everything and we were ready to go.