San Diego Report

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lukek
Posts: 399
Joined: Tue Sep 03, 2002 12:34 pm
Location: San Francisco, CA

San Diego Report

Post by lukek »

So I needed to address the problem of my overdrive. Unlike Tom's, mine went up in smoke (horrible gnashing noises and bad smells, all while I was in "5th" on Hwy 101, 4 miles from home, coming back from Martin Swig's rally...)
I had learned that someone in FML was advertising a whole tranny. But even better, since I already had a new clutch, I was told that the self proclaimed king of the toasted ponies, Tom Shaughnessy, had a couple of these units laying around for around $400. That did not sound bad.
Oracle was also staging a coference in San Diego to publicize its ERP/CRM Apps, so I thought....How convenient !!!

I loaded up the family (not in the Ferrari, we took strollers, suitcases, and half the house for a week stay) and made it a combined car/family/work trip. Driving from SF, we stopped in Santa Barbara. Oh, man....You can't buy a decent home there for less than a million, but the number of homeless is staggering. That is what I call polarization. Imagine streets filled only with Ferraris and Civics, nothing in between.

Tom's shop was one of the first fun stops in San Diego after I was done with my assignment at the conference (no speaking part this time, Ughhh..). He has two locations, so he was running back and forth. Some French guy who flew all the way from Toulon was picking up window trim for his Daytona. I thought about helping bridge the langiage barrier, but instead started to crawl around the parts bins. There was all kinds of stuff, including tools, but at prohibitive prices. Now I know where to get the hard to find stuff. I found Tom to be reasonable, honest, and he turned out to be a car nut himself. He is putting together several car, including a Lampredi engined beastie, a sister car to E Zausner's Ferrari. He also had an Alfa 1900 and that Ferrari/Fiat transporter truck some of you saw at Concorso. It was a bit of a pain to separate the OD from the trannie (broke some of the aluminum bolt bossses), but we finally loaded it up into my car.

Not too much else happened in San Diego, but I did see lots of cool cars. The Superbowl was that weekend, so the main strip in the gaslight district was filled with poseurs in Modena Spiders. If you go, skip the world famous Zoo. They made it some animal friendly, with such large and wooded runs, that you cannot see one bloody animal anywhere. It took us 20 minutes before we spotted a monkey. At least Legoland was fun, albeit expensive.
So I have an appointment to drop off the car on Monday, back in SF, CA. I am told that I can maybe "contribute" a bit, so I might take a day off to learn something more about the car and bond with the various greasy bits.
Now...if I could only arrange to have Tom's every Friday of schedule..

thx
luke
1963 250gte (drove it work today !)
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tyang
Posts: 4060
Joined: Wed Nov 27, 2002 10:28 pm
Location: New York
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Post by tyang »

Hi Luke,

Thanks for the story! It's good to know that Shaugnessy has the parts we may need someday!

Two websites that gave some good information:
http://www.sdvsa.org/LaycockOD.htm#Top
http://www.ntahc.org/techtips/OVERDRIVE1.html
Bob Skoog, of the first link, offers services.
I found out Francois cracked my overdrive open to have a look before I installed it. he knew it wasn't worth taking a chance to have to out of adjustment and installing it in the car.
Now...if I could only arrange to have Tom's every Friday of schedule..
Almost Every Friday. I decided to embrace the weather and go skiing last Friday! My motto is "You have to work very hard at working less!"

Good luck with the OD!

Tom
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Yale
Posts: 825
Joined: Mon Sep 02, 2002 4:56 pm
Location: New York City

Post by Yale »

Ok Tom those overdrive articles were cool. Now we expect from you a Tech Tips sheet as seen below on that Austin Healey Site:

TECH. TIPS
  Title Contributor  
   
1) THE AUSTIN HEALEY REAR END Jim Hockert  
2) THE LAYCOCK DE NORMANVILLE OVERDRIVE Jim Hockert  
3) BUILDING A COMPETITION ENGINE Jim Hockert  
4) HEALEY ELECTRICAL TROUBLESHOOTING Jim Hockert  
5) TIMING COVER SEAL REPAIR Don Lenschow  
6) WIRE WHEEL BALANCING TIPS
Pete Cowper & Others  
7) POWER BRAKE SERVO REPAIR Don Lenschow  
8) GENERATOR TO ALTERNATOR CONVERSION
FOR 6 CYLINDER CARS
Don Lenschow  9) PRE-LUBRICATING A REBUILT ENGINE Adnan Merchant  
10) TOOL IDENTIFICATION LIST Peter Egan & Tim Moran  
11) ENGINE SPEED TO GROUND SPEED CALCULATOR Steve Wilkes  
12) BJ8 (1966) TUNING & TORQUE SPECIFICATIONS Jim Hockert  
13) SPARK PLUG INFORMATION Jim Hockert  
14) UNITS OF MEASURE CONVERTER Tim Moran  
15) IGNITION TESTS Don Lenschow  
16) OVERFLOW TANK Don Lenschow  
17 GEAR BOX LUBRICANT Chris Dimmock  
18 SETTING THE TIMING ON YOUR HEALEY Don Lenschow  19 CLUTCH HOSE REPLACEMENT Don Lenschow  
20 BEATING THE HEAT Don Lenschow  
     
   Best, Yale
Pete
Posts: 83
Joined: Mon Sep 02, 2002 7:35 pm
Location: Australia

Ouch ...

Post by Pete »

... Ouch!!!

[quote]It was a bit of a pain to separate the OD from the trannie (broke some of the aluminum bolt bossses), but we finally loaded it up into my car. [/quote]

Gee I hope somebody can fix that, so the trannie (gearbox for the rest of the world) can be used by someone else :cry: :cry: :cry:

Nothing that a good aluminium welder cannot fix I guess.

Pete
Todd
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Sep 03, 2002 2:54 pm

Shaughnessy

Post by Todd »

I must admit that I have not personally met Tom S. face to face, but I have done quite some business with him and another message boarder Zac and have found them both to be great guys and great Ferrari, etc. enthusiasts. I recently purchased an awesome Lamborghini LP400 Periscopio Countach through Tom S. that has the local Lambo dealer's people all in a tizzy. Tom and Zac are very knowledgable and helpful in the classic Ferrari area and come very highly recommeded from this midwestern Italian exotic fan (5 Ferraris, 1 Lambo, 1 Maserati and 1 Ferrari-based project - thanks Zac). Happy Driving to all!
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lukek
Posts: 399
Joined: Tue Sep 03, 2002 12:34 pm
Location: San Francisco, CA

re: San Diego

Post by lukek »

Pete, the case for the donor overdrive was already toast, welded in several places and not so healthy looking at all, so breaking off the bosses was no big deal (said the teenager in employ of TS).
And I wrapped the OD in enough newspaper, so that the gear oil did not soak all the baby clothes we got from our sis-in-law and had to transport back.
With all these manuals around (Thanks, Tom), maybe I should farm out the removal, and do the rebuilding myself. Oh, wait, I have two children under 2 and a day job, I have no time !
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