[Healeys] Early 100 Handbrake.

[Michael Salter]

Many thanks for all the offers of help regarding my handbrake issue.
Magnus was good enough to send some pics of one he had and it looks exactly
like the one that came with #174.
Here is my response to him;

*"That looks exactly like the one that arrived with the car so I guess what
I have is correct.*

*I think I may have figured out what was different on the later cars.*




* To prevent the bent end of the ratchet rod from tearing up the carpet
there is that 1/4 circle indentation pressed into the fixed tunnel section.
My guess is that is that they spaced the ratchet plate out on the later
cars (using those very thick washers) to provide more clearance, which
required using longer screws, making the tube on the ratchet plate longer
which in turn required making the pivot shaft on the lever longer. Does
that sound reasonable? Unfortunately I don't have a later handbrake lever
here to check that.*

*Now I need to find the correct slot head screws..I think I have one but
may have to make the other.*
*Interestingly the lever that came with #174 appears to be nickle rather
than chrome plated."*

Magnus has responded thus:
*"I agree with your thoughts. They all seem reasonable.*
*Actually the lever may have been nickle plated well into the production of
the 3000. I remember a Swede who took part in the English Healey Club's
concours in the early eighties with his 3000 MKII. He got deductions for
his lever being chromed instead of nickle plated. This lost him the
victory. Me and many other Swedes have always believed that it was a trick
in order to keep him from winning. Maybe the English judges were right
after all?"*

It has also occurred to me that that is the reason for that odd foam rubber
seal that is installed between the handbrake lever and the tunnel on later
cars.

Love this list...
Michael S
BN1 #174





On Tue, Apr 29, 2014 at 1:42 PM, Earl Kagna <kags at shaw.ca> wrote:

> Michael:
>
> There a 2 early BN1's here in Victoria - one in the process of a full
> restoration, the other never restored and in a relatively unmolested state
> - on the road and a beautiful car.  If you don't get a response from a
> known good source, I will contact the owners - very easy to do - and verify
> chassis numbers, and see what we can do, if they are early enough.
>
> Cheers,  --  Earl
>
> -----Original Message----- From: Michael Salter
> Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2014 8:30 AM
> To: healeys at autox.team.net
> Subject: [Healeys] Early 100 Handbrake.
>
>
> Cars built during 1953 had a different handbrake, ratchet plate and
> attaching screws from the later cars.
> It seems that these cars did not have the distance pieces used on later
> cars to space the brake ratchet plate out from the mounting position on the
> tunnel.
> Unfortunately the handbrake lever and ratchet plate had been removed from
> #174 when I got the car and although a lever and ratchet plate were loose
> in the boxes of parts supplied with the car I'm not convinced that they are
> the correct ones.
> Does anyone have a "known correct" pre chassis C 149903 hand brake, ratchet
> plate and screws that they could send photos of so I can check this?
> Many thanks.
>
> Michael S
> BN1 #174