Tag Archives: battery master switch

Chapter 35 Restoration Assembly, Week Two 12/24/2006

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Because of family schedules we celebrated Christmas (gift giving) on Christmas Eve this year, so Monday, Christmas afternoon was devoted to garage work on the Healey. I continued with the installation of the Dynamat Extreme and finished the right side pedal assembly box. I will wait until a little later to finish the dynamat in the interior. The blanking plates were next: one plate with screw clip nuts for the right side master cylinders, 2 plates to cover the steering shaft holes for RHD (one in engine compartment and one in the interior), and finally two plates with the hole for the steering shaft grommet on the left side of the car for LHD cars (again one in the engine compartment and one in the interior). I painted all the flat washers and screw heads for the plate installations.

Blanking Plate 1

I then fastened each of the hot air outlet interior door assemblies and thebulkhead flange bezel. Followed by the fuse block, the double clip for the clutch and brake lines from the masters to the fluid reservoir, the flasher canister and the new flasher relay.

Bulkhead Flange Bezel

 

Vent Doors

Fuse Block and Oil Gauge Line

Well, it is a new day and I am ready for some new challenges. I will get started on the battery cable from British Car Specialists and the wiring harness from British Wiring, Inc. I pushed the harness through the firewall grommet from the interior and separated the strands. I decided to focus on the under car runs first, so after jacking up the car on stands I installed the harness wire that goes to the boot for the fuel pump, fuel sender and rear lights. I skipped the clip attachment to the bump box until I have the rear axle in place.

Wiring Harness 4

Wiring Harness 5

Next I shifted my attention to the battery cable. I got it in place and quit for the day. Tomorrow will be dedicated to connecting the harness under the bonnet and in the boot.

Battery Cable 1

Battery Cable to Starter Solenoid

Harness left side

Wednesday was a good day. I started with the harness on the left side of the car. I secured the harness in the engine compartment with the appropriate zinc fastening clips and connected the wires to the fuse block, the flasher canister, connected and then threaded the dip switch mini-harness through the firewall, connected and threaded the mini-harness for the wiper motor through the firewall, connected the eight wires to the flasher relay box, and connected the front lamp pigtails and routed the harness through the front of the car.

Fuse Block & flasher

Flasher relay

Then I shifted to the right side of the wiring harness. I modified the voltage regulator box to accommodate wiring for an alternator. This is done by cutting out the connectors in the back of the box and then connecting the three brown wires to the same post, and the two yellow wires together to another post.

Harness front view

I then connected the harness to the starter solenoid, and routed the wire down the right side support. Feeders to the ignition, alternator, brake switch, and heater blower route off of the primary harness.

Voltage Box

Harness Right Side

Solenoid Wiring_2

I finished the afternoon installing the battery master switch in the boot. I heard complaints from too many about the original switch so I changed to a modern variant and modified it to fit in the original housing.

Battery Master Switch

Boot Battery Cables

Boot Wiring

I then connected the ground strap, added a few rubber grommets, and routed the wiring to the back of the carwhere a rear lighting harness was connected and fastened with two zinc clips. All-in-all it was a productive day!

Back to the garage the next day, I installed my modified horn brackets and the horns. These are not the proper horns, but at least I got them painted the right color. I used Duplicolor E8800957 “Seattle Silver,” a Honda color, I believe.

horn brackets red LH

horn brackets red RH

Horn painted

They used metric 7mm bolts. Then I installed the little bracket for the bonnet release, the remote control rod support bracket as well as the hydraulic fluid reservoir bracket.

bonnet release rod bracket

fluid reservoir bracket

The bonnet hinges were the next items to install. I greased the clevis pins and used stainless split pins.

Bonnet Hinge

Two big items in my storage bins were the Smiths heater blower and the Cape International interior heater I will be using to upgrade the heating system in the car. The Cape unit, in addition to improved heating efficiency also has a two speed fan. More details are available in the Heating/Cooling section of the website. I went ahead and installed these two items just to make a dent in my storage container!

heater blower 1

Cape heater 2

One thing I wanted to get done early in assembly before tiny spaces got crowded was the installation of the wiper motor assembly rubber grommets. These are a pain to get in, but a little liquid dish soap and muscle did the trick.

Wiper Motor grommets

Chapter 24 – Cleaning and Trial Fitting

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February 12, 2005

Fitting Shrouds and Wings 

Rear Shroud –After removing all small components from the car I secured the shrouds and wings to the car to prepare it to go to Jeremy Turner for panel fitting and painting. To get the shroud and wings lined up properly, the rear shroud first needs to be riveted to the frame. There are a number of sheet metal screw holes in the superstructure and the shroud that Martin used to position the shroud, they are not needed for final installation.

In addition to the rivets, there are six #10 –32 x 1/2” flat head screws and nuts inside the top rear lip of the boot lid channel. Four of the screws attach through the two steel metal clips that provide support for the boot lid hinges.

rear fender fasteners

Rear wing securing plate 1

Wing right rear 1

Wing right rear 3

Wing right rear 4

Wing right rear 2

Front Shroud – Installed 3 flat head #10 x 1/2” machine screws in lip at front of the bonnet channel. Must catch the bottom frame rails on the inside first, then angle the back of the shroud up in the air – not easy to do!

Installed 5 flat head #6 x 3/8” sheet metal screws in lip at back of bonnet channel.

Installed two flat head #10 x 1/2” machine screws on each under bonnet vertical bracket. Couldn’t fasten properly on the left side because of the misformed panel at the left front corner of the superstructure.

Front Wings – Started with the fastener closest to the headlight. Then fastened the rearmost fastener. The long screws are used on the top of the wings. The clips with the shorter screws are used at the front of the wing by the turn signal lights.

Wing Right Front flange1

Wing Right Front flange 2

Car with wings 1

Doors – Pulled the door up and out and then tighten the hinge screws. May need to do some shimming to align correctly.

June 19, 2005 

Side Curtains – I determined that It was better to purchase new side curtains rather than restoring my old ones. However, while the new frames looked quite good, I thought the old rear brackets were better formed than the new brackets. To dress them up and avoid rust in the future, I decided to chrome plate the old brackets.

Chrome Plating 

I sent a number of parts to Custom Chrome Plating in Pennsylvania for plating. Some were for replating and others were items that I just decided to chrome. I am a little concerned about getting too much plating in the windscreen frame channels but it will hopefully turn out alright.

1 Breather Pipe

1 Bonnet Grille

1 Bonnet Grill Surround

1 Interior Dash Grab Handle

1 Interior Dash Grab Handle Escutcheon

2 Boot Hinges (2 pieces each)

2 Rear Seat Squab Retaining Channel Assemblies (2 pieces each)

1 Handbrake Handle

1 Handbrake Pawl

1 Handbrake Ratchet Plate

1 Thermostat Cover

2 Rear Seat Back Hinge Hardware (2 pieces each)

1 Windscreen Frame (4 pieces)

1 Front Grille

1 Boot Spare Tire Strap Staple

2 Side Curtain Brackets (2 pieces each)

Parts to chrome 2

Parts to chrome 10

Rear Seat Squab 

When I owned the car as a twenty year old I decided that rear speakers in the squab were more important than originality! I have decided to have the squab rebuilt by a local carpenter (He made the pieces and I put it together) before sending it to Heritage Upholstery and Trim for upholstery.

Rear Seat Squab assembly

Rear Seat Squab assembly

Rear Seat Squab assembly

Rear Seat Squab assembly

Rear License Plate Bracket and Lamp 

Since I am using Rally car bumpers rather than the original full bumper I need to develop a new approach to mounting the plate and the lamp. I had fabricated something myself, but then decided to modify the BJ8 bracket and mount it directly to the car. I saw another approach on Aussie Peter Jackson’s BN7 at VIR and I may still do something like his.

license & Lamp bracket 1

license & Lamp bracket 2

license & Lamp bracket 5

Peter Jackson’s car:

Peter Jackson’s Plate 

Peter Jackson’s Plate

Battery Master Switch 

So many have complained about problems with the original master switch that I decided to replace it with a modern equivalent from Hella. I mounted it in the original switch bracket.

Battery Master Switch 1

Battery Master Switch 2