[Healeys] Arriving at Conclave (Day 8)

BJ8 Healeys sbyers at ec.rr.com
Mon Jun 30 08:16:43 MDT 2008


Hello, Healeyphiles -

After the flawless performance of my BJ8 over 2,548 miles, we arrived in San Diego yesterday morning about 10:30.  About 50 miles out we were joined by a Healey Blue pre-BJ7 model with a white hardtop and New Mexico plates, but we did not stop to chat so I do not know who that was.  
The Haywoods' car rolled on in also without further rotor problems.  I picked up my wife right on schedule at the airport.
All that is the good news.  Now, the bad:  while approaching the Conclave hotel through downtown San Diego my car developed some gearbox problems and I'm hoping I can get some expert advice about it from the list, beyond the expert advice available here.  I'm exploring my options at this point.

For about a year, whenever the car had been driven to fully warmed-up condition, if I selected reverse it would chatter.  The chatter has gotten progressively worse.  I thought it might be the clutch, but can't explain why it doesn't happen in any gear but reverse.  Yesterday, I selected second and accelerated and the lever jumped out of my hand back into neutral.  To keep second, I have to hold the stick there.  It seemed like third was beginning to be hard to select also.  No grinding, just difficult to push the lever into third.

On my return to the hotel, all forward gears were working O.K., but I still have the reverse chatter.  Thought I might investigate to see if any of the tranny mounting bolts are loose, and perhaps pull the top off to see what it looks like inside.

The Sheraton here is makiing access to the internet more difficult than it has to be, so I don't know how much longer I will be able to access the list.  I can't stay on continuously, so I'll check in periodically.

Steve Byers
HBJ8L/36666
BJ8 Registry
Havelock, NC  USA


More information about the Healeys mailing list