The Hole Truth

by Mike Sinclair

One day as I was tinkering with my previous Healey (that’s mostly what you do with Healeys) I chanced upon an unusual problem. For some long forgotten reason, I had the upper radiator hose off. Since it was off, I thought I would check the thermostat. The engine had been running a little hot lately.

The thermostat checked out ok, and as I was putting it back in, I noticed something odd in the space below. Hard to describe, it reminded me of the little cross in a washtub drain designed to keep large things from falling down the pipe. Seemed odd, but then this was a 100M, and maybe it was special.

It wasn’t reachable easily, so I tried my flexible claw picker-upper, but it wouldn’t budge. The more I tugged, the more it seemed permanently attached, but the more I looked at it, the more it seemed like it shouldn’t be there. Finally it broke loose, and I had the familiar feeling of “now you’ve done it!”—but at least I would find out.

Up came a brand new set of ignition points. They were a little rusty, but still looked pretty good.

No idea how they got there; best guess is someone laid them on the radiator briefly and accidentally knocked them in. They probably spent half an hour hunting for them.

So, the next time the engine seems a little warm, you might check down the hole. Happy Healeying. MM