1956 Red Goddess - No socks for this birthday!

This weekend we had the Good , the Bad and the Ugly

The Good was that we were booked for a pre-Gathering day out with the Goddess at the Purbeck Rally. It was only 2 miles away but the route to the commercial pitches is over a half mile of rough field simulating the bumps and jolts of 180 miles of dual-carriageways and motorway to Shelsley Beauchamp. First thing was to see if a desk-bound 66 year old man could load the car on his own. The whole thing was designed for owner operator use but it was a long time since I achieved it on my own. No pictures of the loading as I was on my own except for Bob the Dog and he was no halp at all.

The 35mph 'breeze' did give me a slight assist in removing the cab cover halfway across the field



and have a picture of the Healey lurking in the grass waiting to be loaded



It took about an hour to get the covers off, load the main and winch batteries, tilt the bed, get the ramps out, the car winched on, bed down, ramps in and the car strapped down. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

Then the job of threading a needle while blindfolded and wearing oven gloves or the fitting a new injector pipe. This would hopefully stop the diesel leak abnd slight misfire.

Bad pipe



New pipe fitted (note the lack of any room or clearance)



Connected to the pump and bled



A quick clean up and move the truck to the gloomy side of the field in the hope that no scallys catch sight of it with the Healey loaded and 4 expensive batteries on board. Assessed the likelihood of being able to fit the cab cover for the night but the wind was now gusting to 47mph and Bob the Dog has no opposable thumbs and is lousy on ladders so gave it up as a non-starter.

The Bad was that we heard the Rally had been closed all day Saturday after the not inconsequential craft tent had blown away so glad I had not ended up flying through the air, gripping the cab cover and screaming "We're not in Kansas anymore". Slept badly and got up a couple of times to take a look but nothing to report except that the pigs sleep incredibly lightly.

Next morning Rob turned up for a bacon sandwich and we went off to the Purbeck Rally. It's a little local gem.

Then came the Ugly. When it came to the commercials entering the show ring I was tooling around giving it large on the fire truck horn and a worrying vibration manifested itself. It only happened on right hand turns so after our 5 minutes of semi-rural fame we climbed under the truck to discover this.



One of the left side engine or gearbox mounts has either slipped or collapsed

Got back home slowly just in case and unloaded the Healey. Went back under the truck to see if the removal of a ton helped and nada. The clutch bellhousing is still touching the diff pumpkin.

I can't drive like this to the Gathering so that's another missed. Have a good time chaps and chappesses.

Yesssssssssssss

Anyone would think there's a saboteur in the ranks given the weekender as well. Can't be the pigs as too new, surely not Bob the dog...

Third time lucky at the NEC perhaps 🤞

Your gin is safe but I've just tweaked the Healey cooling system and rejetted the carb. The results look promising but not for a first 320 mile round trip. PM me you address and I'll send you a little present.

It'll be a two-hander and Dangerous is off for a week so we've got Saturday 24th penned in. Need hard standing for the BIG jacks so I'll move her up to the Volcano Lair and we'll assess what needs doing. If the mounts are OK but have just slipped then we'll weld the bastards to the chassis/gearbox adapter plates. She's bolted up at the moment so that is most likely the problem. We left her like that to allow some future jiggling but it's just made my mind up to bag the front as well. That way we'll have lows for motorway and highs for other roads and off-road.

I like old bags, me

*Ducks as the affectionate slap round the back of the head from SWMBO fails to materialise*

No no no no NO!

They're going to be bladderly big 'helper springs' raising the engine/gearbox relative to the axle so for less than optimum surfaces it can wallow around like a great red whale but for croozin' on de motoways we can drop her down to maximise her aerodynamics (I can't believe I've just written that!). Anyhoo it will stop/seriously reduce the banging/crashing noises that promise a wallet-emptying experience. Means I can hold my head high in the paddock with the bagged set and show them my lowz (It's all relative as Einstein said)

Is that like the "yoots" round here that don't lower their suspension, but simply recline the seat so much they can't see over the dashboard and it makes them think they're lowered?

He tried that but it catches on the diff ...