[Healeys] water pumps and other repro parts

[Jean Caron]

List,
I feel that in many cases the suppliers rely on the fact that the purchasers/owners may complain to them but that's where it ends. This List may start something if enough purchasers/owners band together to let some suppliers know that some of their parts are not up to the task. I complained twice over five years to a supplier about the wiring harness for the signal lights/horns being of the wrong colour. They acted like it was the first time it happened and I know another local owner had purchased the same harness and complained as well in that period of time. 
I am very careful as to who I purchase certain parts from because I only want to install it once. If the part fails before I complete a restoration, believe me it happened with two exhaust hangers and I had to change them, I cannot charge the owner twice for something like that, so it's done on my own time.
Here are a few items that I see problems with:
-Wiper motor mounting rubber, three of them needed.
-Signal lights/ horns wiring harness that goes through the stator tube.
-Inside piece for the ashtray, rechrome your old on as the new ones are not the same at all.
-Flasher unit
-Bottom rad hose
-Carpet set
If anyone wants to know where to get some of these with good quality built in them, contact me off list. 

Jean 
> Date: Sun, 1 Mar 2015 16:18:22 +1100
> From: varley at cosmos.net.au
> To: healeys at autox.team.net
> Subject: [Healeys] water pumps and other repro parts
> 
> Hi Guys, it is in fact very disappointing the quality of some of the 
> reproduction parts available for our cars. Whenever possible it is 
> better to recondition original equipment rather than take the road that 
> can seem easier by replacing. I have seen the following. New complete 
> BJ8 steering box where the sector peg was fully soft steel and wore out 
> in 2000 miles. Alloy petrol tanks that continually crack at the end 
> seams. Plastic fuel gauge tank unit floats that crack at the clip that 
> retains them. Ball joint boots that disintegrate quickly.  Cast 
> aluminium 6 cylinder sumps that are porous and leak oil. Alloy 100 
> cylinder heads sold as for the 100 when they were in fact Austin A70 
> commercial heads with Healey valves fitted small deep combustion cambers 
> and hopeless valve masking. And for goodness sake does anyone make a 
> Healey exhaust mount that is properly vulcanised rubber to steel and 
> doesn't fall apart? I know it is hard to make small volume production 
> but in the real world the suppliers would be getting lots of warranty 
> claims. My sample is just across 3 cars, so I'm sure there are more out 
> there. Feel free to reply to the list with what parts have disappointed. 
> While the list probably should not name and shame the suppliers, we 
> should be pointing out what to be aware of when buying new reproduction 
> parts. Wherever possible fix what the original manufacturer produced as 
> it will have been made to a high standard, with repro, who knows.
> Cheers
> Larry Varley
> 
> 
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