Feb2 Shop Meet

St Johns Austin-Healey Club
Jacksonville, Florida

a chapter of the

Austin-Healey Club of America

Club Tech Session held Friday, Feb. 5, 2024

Nine SJAHC members turned out for the latest club tech session held Friday, Feb. 5, at Paul Sandefer’s shop on the north bank of Doctors Lake near Orange Park. The host and Bill Young, SJAHC president, were joined there by Tony Martini, Bill Maroney, Ben Proctor, Bob Pippin, Rick Stevenson, Jim Gaff and Ron Keysor.

As planned, the goal was to simulate an annual Healey mechanical inspection as outlined in the published company recommendations.

Ben Proctor provided the test vehicle, his recently acquired and throughly restored dark blue BJ8 (with rarely seen and very handsome dark brown leather seats and interior). With the car mounted on Paul’s lift, members took turns checking the underside and trying to trace the suspected oil leaks typical of our British-built cars.

There was little of that, often described as British rustproofing, on Ben’s car. It was just a bit of wiping for that car’s spotless underside, so very unlike what most of our own cars exhibit. For want of something better in the fruitless search for something to fix, he differential fill plug was removed, with the desirable 90 wt. oil present. As the morning rolled on, spiced with fresh coffee and the Inevitable pastry, the engine oil was changed, as was the filter, and the combined clutch and brake reservoir topped off without a definitive answer to where the lost brake fluid had gone. The car’s brake servo was suspected, but only time will provide the answer. Eventually, the grease gun came out and the front suspension was refreshed except for one grease fitting that was peculiarly oversize and would not enter the chuck. And then there was a fruitless search for the date code on the car’s Dunlop tires, accompanied by an exchange of opinions on the dangers of failure by overage tires. Those on Ben’s car were known to be several years old but appeared nearly new.

The search will go on.

Once the poking and probing on Ben’s car had gone on for about three hours, members turned to the restaurant-provided lunch delivered by Paul’s wife, Judy. In addition to individually wrapped and tasty sandwiches, we had a variety of big cookies, ditto on chips, and a variety of drinks. For members considering hosting future such tech sessions, it’s the club’s policy to reimburse hosts for the expenses involved. This session ran to mid-afternoon, as the number of logical poking and probings of the BJ8 was exhausted, stories exchanged, and members gradually departed for home. RK