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History         [ 1997-98 ] [ 1999] [2000][ 2003 ] [ 2005-06]

("I thought it was supposed to be a toy, not another project..."
-- Pam)

1997-98

• Acquired in October 1997. Two previous owners, 106K miles. Car had fairly new exhaust, front suspension and steering gear.
• 12/97 - Pulled up passenger side carpeting and found rusty floor pan. Extensive rust removal and treatment with POR-15. Rebuilt passenger seat mount.
• 1/98 - Seats back in ready to drive. But now I see the gas tank is rusty...
• 2/1/98 - Gas tank derusted, sealed. MSD ignition installed.
• 2/10/98 - Screeching sound and burnt rubber smell from under the hood. Cam belt tension pulley seized. Disassembled, installed new bearings and cam belt. How can you tell if the tension is just right?
• 2/28/98 - Loosened belt a tad to make it quieter. Installed Chrysler ballast resistor to try to get tach working. But it doesn't work very well. And the engine doesn't run so great either. Car died on way to store but restarted after a few minutes. Got rid of ballast resistor and changed fuel filter which had trapped some gunk.
• 3/7/98 Reinstalling carpeting and dashboard wood trim. Amazing how easy it is to take dash apart on an old car. Oughta redo seatbelt mounts while I'm at it. Clearly not driving anywhere for another week...
• 4/1/98 New veneer on glove box and center console. 'Not perfect, but better than before. Still rainy around hereÖ Is there any way to get off the radio/heater panel without removing the entire choke cable?
• 5/1/98 A weekend of sunshine! Washed the exterior and got out for some errands. Running splendidly. But noticed a smell of gasoline when I went to put groceries in the back. Oooops,  fuel pump is leaking.
  Disassembled it and tried to seal it better. Now it leaks REALLY badly.
• 5/10/98 New fuel pump in. But the hoses don't fit right. Back to the store for more fittings... Anyway, it's raining again.
• 5/15/98 Running again just in time for a field trip to see M. Mathew's antique car collection. Sorta hoping the Jensen would improve itself by proximity to all those Packards, Ferraris & Porsches. Running OK but I still notice a slight miss or hesitation at light throttle and 2000-3000 rpm. This goes away if you step on it, or if it's cold and you have the choke out.
• 6/30/98 New spark plugs and reset timing to 8 degrees BTDC. Installed fan shroud in anticipation of summer heat (haven't seen any yet). Seemed  happier (slight misfire gone?) but then it mysteriously died again on trip home. Started again after a couple minutes... Does this only happen after it's been been driven on the highway and then allowed to sit for a while?
• 8/25/98 Exhaust leak at rear of the first muffler. Patched with some ceramic goop. Don't expect that to last very long... Managed to accidentally disconnect the wire from the points circuit in the distributor. A MAJOR pain to reconnect -- need arms like snakes. I suspect it was loose before. Maybe that was the source of misfires?
• 9/20/98 Running well! Maybe it was the loose ignition wire after all.
• 11/21/98 Still running OK. Rebuilt the tachometer with new innards inside the old housing and bezel. Works nicely around town. Need a good opportunity to test it out above 4000 rpm... :-)
• 3/1/98 Something under the hood  is making a noise like bearings going bad....

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1999

• 3/16/99 Car on stands in the garage. It was probably the water pump. Shaft loose, but not leaking yet. Removed it (had to first remove radiator, timing belt cover, thermostat housing and the new fan shroud) and sent off for rebuilding of bearings and seals. Going nowhere for another week it seems.
• 3/29/99 Installed rebuilt water pump. Twice... First time evidently used the wrong kind of gasket goo. Sorry details &  lessons learned here.
• 4/4/99 Decided to get the front muffler (resonator) replaced as the crack was growing. Local muffler shop couldn't find an exact replacement -- anyway, it appears from the JH email group that these have a tendency to crack at the rear panel. Shop first suggested replacing the resonator with a straight pipe, as some in the email group have done. The result was a bit loud for genteel Palo Alto, with an annoying rasp under acceleration. So I had them replace with a "cherry bomb"glass-packed muffler as others have done. Much better, perhaps a tad louder than before but not objectionable. I'm told this will deteriorate over time.
• 4/24/99 Time for a smog test. Took it in for a pre-test just in case things were out of whack (wouldn't do to be branded a "Gross Polluter" by DMV). Failed CO% at idle. Passed the next week after some minor carb tweaking. (Details, tips and  results here.) Only two more smog tests to go before she's an antique!
• 5/15/99 Replaced the disintegrating foam air filters with K&N filterchargers. The filters look great, but the mounting bolts are a case study in how not to "design for assembly." Replaced the bolts with sections of threaded rod, screwed and jam-nutted to the carbs leaving long threaded studs onto which the spacers and filters could be slipped. Clearance is very tight so had to re-route the crankcase ventilation hoses.
• 9/11/99 Participated in the Palo Alto British Car Meet and drive to the beach, mostly to meet some other JH owners and get tips on good mechanics, etc. Car did fine, but continues to smoke on long downgrades. I think mine was definitely the least restored of the 8 or so Jensen Healeys there.
• 12/6/99 Long stretch with no entries! Car continues to run strongly, but I'm getting increasing evidence of blow-by. Compression seems OK (141-148 on all cylinders) but the rings and lower end are probably worn. Arranged to take the car into Barry Spencer (Hayward, CA) for his analysis.
• 12/14/99 Barry says it's due for a rebuild (surprise, surprise). So I'm biting the bullet. Brought the hardtop over to Hayward while we wait for the new pistons and rings. Fortunately, we're having one of the driest Decembers on record.

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2000

• 3/1/00 It's ready! Picked up the car in Hayward and drove back through the drizzle. The car is not running well on the highway, it seems to be periodically fuel starved. Barry hooked up a spare wire to the fuel pump, but that's only partially fixing things. Also the steering is now loose - looks like it was not fully tightened on engine reinstallation.
• 3/6/00 The fuel pump problem seems to be a loose connection right at the fuse box. The wire goes directly to the #2 (out of a grand total of 3!) fuses. I fussed with the connection some and changed the fuel filter and things appear to be happy now. Steering is still too loose. Also there seems to be a leak in the gas tank where the float is. (I knew that end cap was going to leak sooner or later).
• 4/8/00 Got my new steering bushing from Delta and cleaned out and rebuilt the ball bearing and housing at the top of the steering column. After a couple of false starts (like initially putting the upper joint in upside down) it's ready. Left-hand drive was clearly an afterthought in this car. I wedged in a crude heat shield to try to keep the steering joints from being cooked.
• 4/9/00 Time for a test drive. Car still idles hard at first, but better once warm. Steering is rather stiff, but at least it's tight. Hopefully steering and engine will both get a bit less tight as they wear in. Car drove nicely out to Portola Valley and back.
• 5/10/00 Replaced the tank end cap and seal. Seems better. Also glad to see that the coating job that was done on the inside of the tank a couple of years ago is holding up nicely. The steering is still too stiff and the idle is still rougher than ideal.
• 5/24/00 About 250 miles since rebuild. Decided to rexamine the steering situation. It seems that the circlip at the top of the steering column popped loose. So there is a lot of friction from the wheel rubbing against the turn signal bushing. Took it apart and reassembled it. Steering feels better now but there's a bit of play between the wheel and the steering column. (The splined hole on the wheel is worn.) Will try to fix this next weekend. Meanwhile, I still think it's idling too roughly. And I managed to put a dent in the floorpan when the jack slipped :-(.
• 6/20/00 Took the car to Sonora and back. It performed nicely and got respectable mileage (about 25 mpg). I-5 is a bit obnoxious... like riding a motorcycle. The car got a bit warm in the central valley, but never worrisome. If I lived in Sacramento I'd have to get one of those 3-row radiator jobs. Sumer to-do list:  replace seatbelts, remove door inner panel and replace window seals, put some miles on it and see if the idle improves.
• 10/8/00 A beautiful early fall day with a fresh breeze and a few trees here and there turning red (about all we get for color in Palo Alto). Installed new seatbelts (much more convenient!) and the new steering shaft and U-joint yesterday and tightened up a suspension arm that was a bit loose. I'm not sure the steering is really much improved, but it seems a tad crisper than before. The engine is nicely broken in now and pulls wonderfully at 4000 rpm. At 5000 (already going rather fast...) it sounds like it would happily rev up to the red line. The idle is improved after enriching the mixture just a bit. It now idles fairly well once fully warmed up. It seems to idle best in hot weather... My only concern now is a bit of bearing? belt? valve? noise when it first starts after sitting for a week or so.

[2003] (gets its own page)

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