Austin Healey Sprite 1969 - How could I say no to that face!

[AceOfHearts]

Well the newest addition to the fleet has arrived. Its a 1969 Austin Healey Sprite Mk4 with a frogeye front end. It has a mildly tuned 1275 engine and ts great fun













And it fits in the garage well



Plans are to give it a little tidying, maybe a few performance mods and drive it a lot!

I now some of the purists won't like it but to me it is a good compromise as I love the look of the frogeye but this has the benefit of a proper boot, proper roof and a decent sized engine (plus original frogeyes are massive money at the moment!)

[Mercdan68]

Like

[Carlosfandango.]

Love :-)

CFD

[alecf]

My dad's got a red frog eye we picked it up a few years back. The seating position is on the floor in them.

[flyingphil]

Enjoy your Frog! It is possible to graft the frogeye style fibreglass rear wings onto the later bodyshell and retain the opening boot if you really want to upset the purists!

[sprintmini]

Lovely, I recently picked up a rather rough looking midget.
is your front hinged from the bulkhead or chassis?
Any chance of some pics of the hinge setup?as mine is goosed.

[AceOfHearts]

Thanks for the comments, i didnt realise you could get frogeye style rear arches to keep the boot, I thought they did whole rear ends only, ill have to read up!

My bonnet is hinged from the bulkhead, ill get some pictures tomorrow

[Carlosfandango.]

One of these is definitely on the bucket list for me.
There's a black one local to me, see it buzzing around in the summer months and I always stop to watch it until it's out of sight.
What's it like to drive? I've no experience, or at least not any I can recall. It must be nearly thirty years since I drove a midget.
Your's is absolutely lovely.

CFD

[flyingphil]

Jan 21, 2016 22:38:51 GMT AceOfHearts said:

Thanks for the comments, i didnt realise you could get frogeye style rear arches to keep the boot, I thought they did whole rear ends only, ill have to read up!

My bonnet is hinged from the bulkhead, ill get some pictures tomorrow

Hi
You do get the whole rear end and just cut the centre section out which leaves the rear wings to bond/secure in place.

[AceOfHearts]

OK then so first update. I bought the car knowing that it was leaking oil from the rear scroll. I know the A-series are prone to this if the engine breather system is not up to scratch and this one has been modified. In the big bag of parts the previous owner gave me I found a PCV valve so put this back in place on the inlet manifold and piped up the timing cover breather hose.

I am unsure why it was removed but the breather hose was re-directed to a makeshift catch tank which was held in with a bungee cord at the front of the car. This is now in the bin

Here is the engine bay as bought (requires some tidying)



Makeshift catch can





And a hinge as previously requested



I didn't get a picture of the PCV in place but I will give the underside of the engine and gearbox a thorough clean and keep an eye to see if this has helped the leaking. I took it out for a drive and all seems well but the tickover is now a bit high so I will have to setup the carbs again I think.

I wanted to get a few hundred miles under my belt before the misses goes out on her own with it to iron out any niggles. Lucky I did as tonight on the way to work I noticed the brakes dimmed all the lights and about 5 miles from work I lost power to my wipers, indicators, tacho and fuel gauge. I suspect a dodgy earth somewhere as I was cleaning out the boot earlier, so hopefully an easy fix. Lunch break at work tonight I will be fishing around with a multimeter

[flyingphil]

Some TLC will soon have your Sprite looking really smart - but watch for tin worm! The leaking oil keeps the centre underneath nice and rust free but the outer edges tend to need attention.....

[pOG]

Fabulous little car & great pics
(Ickwell green has long been one of my top-spots for nice car shots)

[georgeb]

I had promised myself that until I'd deleted some, I wouldn't have any more bookmarked threads. When Readers Rides is 323 pages long and my bookmarks are 322, you'll understand. But, well...

Lovely little motor, and bookmarked!

[bazzateer]

Still miss my old Frogeye, it was a MkI but mechanically was all MkIV - absolute hoot in all weathers!

UUT 776 - where are you now?

[AceOfHearts]

250 mile update

Blew what i think (hope) was the clutch release bearing today whilst out with the other half. Car still drives but is rattling like a goodun.

I think plan is to pull the engine and box so should be a good time for mods as well

[AceOfHearts]

Well on the final drive home as well as the clutch problem we had a really horrible metallic burning smell and 10 miles from home the charging light came on. I have just pulled the (new in 2014!) dynamo off the car and this is what I found when pulling it apart!







As you can see the bronze bush has failed and allowed the armature to hit the field coils. Luckily I already have an alternator sitting here ready to fit as I want to add a cigarette lighter to the car and in general dislike dynamos

[flyingphil]

On that old style dynamo, there was an oiling hole for the bearing at the end of the bearing housing - often never used....But it is a good idea to change to an alternator. That also usually involves changing the Earth polarity as well.

[AceOfHearts]

Luckily it is already negative earth so should be a straight forward swap. I am working on the Trabant over the next couple of days but Thursday i will stsrt preparing for the engine pull on the Austin

[AceOfHearts]

Made a good start today. My friend Jon was round working on the Trabi so I got him to help me get the bonnet off the Austin. Some of the wiring is horrendous!







Started stripping the engine ready for removal. Looks like I found the source of the horrible noise (which I guess now is not the clutch). Got this far though so might as well carry on



Lovely wiring



Engine out



Scabby engine paint removed and block degreased. I wish I had take some better before photos now but the block was basically covered in flaky black paint.





Engine bay de-greased



And to finish off a long day. Thankfully I have a very understanding fiance who even helped me lift the engine and box into the living room

[AceOfHearts]

So an update for today. I pulled the head off the engine and decoked it along with the pistons (which took ages!), I then got to painting the block and head



I don't know if anyone has had this issue with Sprites of Midgets but the A-series has its timing marks at the bottom of the timing cover, but on my car there is a cross member in the way so you basically have to guess the timing! To get around this I measured up the timing marks, made my own set and then welded them to the top of the cover so they are easy to see. I then set the bottom marks exactly to top dead centre and filed my new mark in the top of the pulley. Hopefully that should make things a bit easier come re-installation



I then replaced the dodgy clutch. The release bearing was totally goosed and looks like it has peppered the inside of the bell housing. I replaced the bush and bolt in the release fork at the same time so there is no play at all now and is nice and smooth.





Finally I mocked the head back on and covered it up to let the paint harden overnight. Tomorrow I will reassemble the engine properly and hopefully get it back in the car