[Healeys] Question for Shop Owners / Restorers Only - OD Throttle

[glemon at neb.rr.com]

I am not a shop owner, but since everybody else has weighed iin I will as well, the short answer for me is I like the throttle switch, but in my opinion you don't need it.

It was part of the fun driving the BN1 to flip it out of overdrive...then blip the throttle to actually get it out of OD, the sounds and sensations add to the driving fun.

But I really don't think it is NEEDED and it is personal preference relating to your feeling about the reliability of the part in question, originality and the general driving experience.  You can jam your later Healeys into 1st gear while rolling, but you shouldn't, and for your car and wallets sake I hope you don't.  Likewise you shouldn't flip overdrive off without blipping the throttle, in my opinion no clutch is needed, but you can do it the way (if you don't do it right with the clutch and throttle though you can still strain the O/D), it is called driving the car right, and takes the strain off the O/D and you should have no problems without having a throttle switch if you drive this way.  Likewise you let off a little bit to let the revs match the O/D on engagement.   

As others have said you can even treat the o/d worse than that and it may not have a problem, but then again you might and with the time and cost of a rebuild I wouldn't recommend it.

Greg Lemon