Getting OGU roadworthy again

[billwill]

It's just on a year now since my S3 Coupe went back on the road, so I'm off now to get her MOT refreshed.

[billwill]

Passed OK, though the MOT tester was a bit dubious about a bit of play between the steering column and the rack. But I think there is an adjuster for that.

He said we are supposed to have anti-slip rubber covers on the brake pedal nowadays; though to the best of my recollection, I've never had that. Are they available?

His partner was not too happy about the garage having been mentioned as "Classic Friendly" as he said that had overtones of being toooo friendly for insurance purposes. He would prefer the phrase "Classic Experienced".

[robertverhey]

I bought hillman imp pedal rubbers, they do the job.

[ericbushby]

Bill, I bought pedal rubbers recently from Sue Miller,
Eric in Burnley
1967 S3SE DHC ( back on the road, bump steer cured )

[billwill]

Oh o...

I went for a 40 mile run just after the MOT mentioned above and on return noticed some rather large oil blots on my drive.

So I did a bit of a check yesterday. With the engine hot and running it is dripping oil from the bottom of the bell housing so perhaps the rear crank oil seal is leaking.

The dip stick showed a loss of rather a lot of my nice brand new oil

But worst of all, while looking under the car I noted that there is a lot of clack-clack type noise, which alas I suspect is due to floppy big-ends or mains.

So I might not get the driving fun I hoped for this summer & need to save up for a full renovate of the bottom half of the engine.

Sigh !

[Elanconvert]

aw bill....... sorry to hear that........maybe it will rain a lot and make you feel better......?!

wouldn;t like to suggest it, but there used to be a 'molyslip' based compound that would 'reduce big end noise' [?!] and extend life of bearings..........

fred

[billwill]

Looking over past info, my pistons are already +20 thou. I suppose that rules out any further re-boring?

[rgh0]

Almost all blocks will go to +40 thou or 83.5 mm and many will go beyond that so you probably have two + 10 thou more rebores in the block at least which should last you a couple of life times and once to get to that point you can normally sleeve it back and start again. However it is best to have an ultrasonic scan of your wall thickness in the block and offset the boring to even up the wall thickness as best you can. Target minimum absolute wall thickness should be greater than 2.5mm / 0.100 inch an ideally it should be above 3.0mm / 0/120 inch

cheers
Rohan

[billwill]

Thanks, Rohan.

[billwill]

My engine expert Rob Morely came to have a listen to the engine and he doesn't think the noise is unusual. It sounds OK to him, So I'm relieved about that.

The oil leak seems to have stopped but I haven't been on a fast run since the one mentioned above, so it may only occur at speed.


~~~~~~~~~~


Tried to change the left trunnion today, but try as I might, I could not get the bolt out that joins the trunnion to the lower suspension arms. I guess it has seized onto the bush and though it turns, it is probably also turning the bush when I turn the bolt with a spanner.

I've put it back together for the moment & will tackle that trunnion another day.

[billwill]

Shakedown:

First longish run since the new head from SAS & other repairs/changes last year.

Did about 400 mile from Sunday till Wednesday visiting friends & relative in Surry, Hants and Dorset.

A few problems emerged... typical ...

1. I had tightened the left Window motor mounting screws last week & as soon as I tried to open the window the hawser jumped off the pulleys (or some-such) and I could only open the window a half inch.. Not ideal considering that for once we have HOT weather here. So with only one window fully open it got hot & sticky in the cabin. No problem to fix, just tedious.

2. Acceleration was fine on Sunday, for 70 or so miles, but sometime on Monday a jerking acceleration became evident at around 2000 RPM, but ok accelerating from other RPM. I had this just after getting the car on the road for the first time last year (and mentioned it in earlier messages on this topic). This time I noted that it is very specific to 2000 RPM, so I'm wondering if it is some Dellorto progression holes blocked (I can't really tell if the problem is due to a single cylinder or due to all). Or is might be something resonates in the distributor at 2000RPM. Maybe that's where the second counter-weight spring comes into action.

What does the Jury think is the most likely cause?

3. My fuel gauge went to zero while in Abbotsbury Swannery, which gave me a mental jolt, thinking I had a fuel leak, but it was only the electric gauge not reading; my faithful fuel dipstick showed me I still had a half full tank. A bit later I discovered that the radiator fan wasn't running. So I checked the fuses & all were OK, then the fuel gauge and fan were working again until much later, stuck in a traffic jam on Hanger Lane.. I knew I couldn't survive a long traffic jam in this heat with no rad fan so I stopped & jiggled the fuzes again but this time it didn't fix it. So I jury rigged a 12v wire to the fan to run it continuously and got home.

So I have yet to find out what is wrong with the wiring and I feel awfully tempted to replace the classic 4-fuse box with a modern blade fusebox and also arrange that more 'services' have their own fuses to make diagnosis & road-side fixes much easier. Maybe I can get some scrapped looms from a breakers yard to get a good supply of motoring standards coloured wires. Buying a supply of every combination of colours, brand new, would be too expensive.

[billwill]

Well the electrics problem has been diagnosed..

It was a faulty fuse. It registered OK on my ohm meter, but doesn't actually connect the connectors in the fusebox.

Grrr...

[mbell]

At least it's a cheap easy fix!

For 2) checking the progression holes would be a sensible start. I'd also check that the pump jets are all functioning correctly. The pump jets would probably effect it all all revs but just might be more noticeable at 2000rpm.

Might be worth checking the ignition leads for a iffy connection that cause problems at specific RPM/frequency.

[billwill]

Given the electrical hassles I had last Wednesday and the fact that my ignition key got hot, indicating that the ignition switch is being overloaded:

I'm seriously tempted to replace my old 4-way glass-fuses fusebox with two of these:

http://cpc.farnell.com/multicomp/ppfh-7 ... dp/FF02309
and rig a relay operated by the ignition switch to feed the 12v power to the second box.

These boxes use reliable modern blade fuses and have LED indicators to show when a fuse has blown.

They are arranged to have only one 12v input which is why two are needed, the first would be fitted with a fuse for each permanently-on circuit, with the wires coming off the push on tags that you can see in the picture.

The second fusebox would supply all the circuits that are only active when the ignition switch is on; I might even go for two relays and have three 4 way fuseboxes so that one box handled all the circuits which are active when the ignition switch is in either AUX or Run positions and one for the circuits which are only active in the RUN position. I'd need to work out the relay circuit to achieve that.

I would probably start just using the existing wiring separating out the mess of shared fuses that is the existing Lotus method to individual fuses and then only add any additional wires later for any circuits which currently fork the 12v supply much deeper in the loom.

Yeah, I know it's way off original, but remember many of the faults that occur on an Elan are electrical ones. And those little LED indicators would have saved my lots of wasted time and hassle last Wednesday. Anyway I can always keep the old fuse-box to hand on, in the unlikely event that I ever sell this car.

[billwill]

Here's another possibility, for those who feel inclined to do a total rewiring exercise.
Non-original of course, but it would probably clear up all the Elan electric niggles.

Its a pre-wired module including 12 fuses and with relays for Horn and Fan and the direction indicator flasher and hazard flasher. Just add wires

http://www.carbuildersolutions.com/uk/c ... ng-module#

I see it doesn't include headlight relays though so you might want to add those