1973 Jensen Healey Mk1 Little Red Rooster

[Lacy]

Having been a long time lurker and occasional poster I thought it was time I posted something that may be of interest to the community

Having served my apprenticeship at Lucas more years ago than I care to remember and having lived in the shadow of 'The Ostin' for the past 26 years, I have always been a bit of a petrol head and always liked older motors from the 60's and 70's......had a few over the years and I have just got my latest, a little Jensen Healey of 1973 vintage that was named 'Rooster' by it's previous owner and I see no reason to change the name!


Untitled by Lacy K, on Flickr

I came by the car quite by accident. A casual conversation with a friend at work about shimming the valve clearances on his Lotus Elan and I mentioned a friend of mine had owned a Jensen Healey for the last 20 years. Said friend then mentioned that his brother had a Jensen Healey that he was thinking of getting rid of as it hadn't been on the road for a while and was taking up room on his drive.

I went to have a look at it and was smitten....I had to have it. There are plenty of 'iffy' areas on the bodywork and the hood is a bit of a mess....the photos' make it look better than it is... but everything from the sills down is amazing. No rot whatsoever with solid metal and clean shiny paint. Stainless steel fuel tank and exhaust. Someone has done a LOT of work on this in the past and done properly. The engine is a peach. These were originally 2.0l and, in Mk1 form fairly fragile. This has been fitted with the stronger Mk2 engine that has been rebuilt using bits from a 2.2 engine (same bore, longer stroke) and the carbs were changed from Dellorto 40's to 45's. Not a lot of money changed hands and it was mine.

The journey home, after fitting a new battery, insuring and booking an MOT, was an absolute nightmare. Rooster wasn't too keen on being woken from it's slumber and despite initially stating and going OK, soon went onto 3, then 2, then stall.....start up on 2, stall, start on 3, etc. etc.....all the way home across Birmingham.....in Rush hour....in the pouring rain.....and missed my MOT appointment...

The following day I pulled the plugs and saw it was running very rich. Stuck my Colortune in and tweaked each cylinder down ½ turn on the mixture screws. Car now runs brilliantly....probably a mixture of running rich and needing a blow out....still get the occasional stumble but getting better all the time as it gets used.

Took in for an MOT today and passed with no advisories.

Anyway, here's the 'money shot'


Untitled by Lacy K, on Flickr

There's lots of little bits and pieces that need doing to keep me busy and the bodywork will need some serious intervention at some time but for now I shall just enjoy using it and getting used to it.

Anyway, hope you like it!

[georgeb]

& bookmarked!

Always facied one of these back in the day. Never did though.

[Clement]

Bookmarked as well! Cool roadster with a Lotus engine, that sounds sweet :-)

[grifterkid]

I love these... It has to be my favourite British roadster of the 70's and I'd love to own one some time very soon!!! Yours is even more special being a very early Mk1 by the looks of things?! I shall be checking this thread very regularly indeed...

[Lacy]

Thanks chaps, yeah, it is quite an early one; chassis no 10100 making it the 100th one off the line.....although it wasn't registered until 1/1/73 so maybe it was a factory demonstrator or something. Either way,I absolutely love it. A wonderful driving experience and the sound of that twin cam engine is to die for. It probably won't get too much use once the weather starts to turn and an early job has to be the cam belt. Although it was replaced when the engine was rebuilt only a few thousand miles ago it ought to be changed on a time basis if nothing else for peace of mind....if these belts let go, they are apparently very expensive to rebuild the top ends so for the price of a belt....

[timmy201]

You have a logo for your car already!

[Smiler]

Liking very much, I'd love to eperience living with one of these for a week.

[markgenesis]

Love this , nice to see the original style plates, that motor looks excellent.

A neighbour in the housing scheme where i grew up as a kid in the 70's had a brown one of these, i remember spending ages trying to figure out what it actually was

[markgenesis]

Oct 26, 2013 16:19:22 GMT Lacy said:

Although it was replaced when the engine was rebuilt only a few thousand miles ago it ought to be changed on a time basis if nothing else for peace of mind....if these belts let go, they are apparently very expensive to rebuild the top ends so for the price of a belt....

Sound thinking, timing belts being rubber age like any other rubber component, i've always gone with the rule of replace every three years regardless of mileage.

[mdh]

Always liked JH's, good looking car and a classic engine.

I wish I could find a solid one with a blown engine.....a V8 should fit in that shapely nose.

Damn, I'm getting bad thoughts already!!

[Lacy]

As the weather was warming up I have been giving this a run out here and there. The misfire I had when I picked it up was still there and seemed to be getting worse. It would start up perfectly from cold and rev with no problems but as soon as it began to warm up it would cough and splutter, gradually getting worse until it wouldn't run at all.

Fuel pump was doing its job and I initially thought it was carb related as the plugs seemed dry. Just to rule out an ignition problem I bought four of these:



Fantastic little things, and showed me in minutes that there was a problem with the ignition. The car already has an ignition module fitted in place of points and condensor so I popped up to Paul Matty's Sports Cars (luckily I live only a couple of miles from his place) and bought a new dizzy cap, rotor arm, coil and plugs...all fitted and the car runs perfectly. Took it out for a good run and it didn't miss a beat.

Very happy bunny!

[grifterkid]

Lovely to see this again... Here's to a joyous Jensen jamboree this summer!!!

[Anglia68]

I've always loved these since I was a teen as one would drive past me every morning on my walk to school.
Yours looks pretty damned good.

[georgeb]

Bookmarked this back in October. Nice to see it re-appear.

[Lacy]

The tyres were well past their sell by date (1989 tyres going by the markings) and although there was plenty of tread, the old rubber was cracking and they really needed replacing.



Choices were limited in this size (185/70/13) but I got a set of Nexen Blue eco something or others for £48 a corner. They seem to get decent enough reviews for a cheapish tyre and have transform the way the car drives. Happy bunny!

[Lacy]

A little bit of fettling today. The old air filter was a bit past is's best so I replaced it with a K+N....part number E-2240. Perfect fit.





Also played with my new Carbtune pro to check the balance on the carbs. They should be set on a quick tick over to within 2cmHg of each other. They were pretty good to start with but a very satisfying job to do and tweak it as close as you can. Here's a quick before and after vid:

[peter96]

Love it. Cant beat an old Brit rag top.

[georgeb]

Any more updates?

[bobajob]

I think Jensen Healeys are very under-rated cars. They were often slated for poor build quality , which may or may not be true but I've always felt the overall package would respond very well to being properly sorted. They've got all the right ingredients.Good luck with this , I'll follow the thread with interest.

[Lacy]

Well, blimey. where does the time go!........

I haven't used the car a great deal and haven't really done a great deal to it either.

I took it to the RR gathering last year and it ran beautifully.


IMG_1602 by Lacy K, on Flickr


Visited my Brother in law at Wyre Piddle on the way home and took him out for a fast drive around some twists. Lots of heavy braking, and when the brakes got hot they seized on with a rock hard pedal....curse word!

Once everything cooled down they were fine so a steady drive home and a look to see where the problem was. Once cold the brakes were as free as a free thing and the callipers were fine. I changed the front brake hoses just in case but a test drive with lots of heave braking saw the problem return. Backing the master cylinder off the servo a couple of turns saw the brakes free again so it looked like an adjustment issue with the servo rod holding the m/c in a touch meaning that the relief port was blocked so when the fluid got hot and expanded it had nowhere to go locking the brakes and making the pedal hard.....trouble is, my servo rod adjustment is seized so rather than wrecking it I mounted two really stout washers between the servo and master cylinder and the brakes are now perfect.

It still has a minor running problem but only when it gets stinking hot. The temp gauge normally sits around 1/3 and it runs perfectly mile after mile including some spirited A road and motorway runs. When stuck in traffic or doing a lot of around town bimbling, the temp gauge nudges the half way mark and the car starts stumbling, getting gradually worse, but it has never failed to get me home. I'm not sure whether it's an ignition component breaking down under the heat or a fuel evaporation problem....

I have got a new hood to fit from Don Trimming that I hope to do soon. In preparation I have managed to get a really good header rail to replace mine that's a bit rotten and also a replacement first spar that had broken from someone on the Jensen Owners Club forum. I also bought one of the chrome cleats that goes on the rear deck panel that holds the rear of the hood as one of mine is broken. I got it some time ago and put it somewhere really safe......you know the rest.....so I have had to order another one.

Another problem is that while moving it around on my drive way the throttle cable snapped. Looking at it it is clear that the nipple on the carb end of the cable is seized in the bracket so rather than rotating it has been bending which is what's caused it to break.

IMG_2277 by Lacy K, on Flickr

The carb end is easy enough to sort out but the pedal end looks fun. It's buried deep up in the pedal box. Apparently it's possible to get at it while lying in the footwell on your back with a long pair of needle nose pliers otherwise the pedal box will have to come off to do it..... you can just see it at the top right of this picture:

IMG_2281 by Lacy K, on Flickr

Anyway, I have the Hood cleat, a throttle cable and a new hood to screen seal on order from Rejen which might come tomorrow so I shall post more as work goes on....