New Owner Questions

[Galwaylotus]

Hello, all.

I've just purchased a lovely S3 SE FHC and drove it 500 miles home from the vendor last Saturday. I have acouple of problems I hope someone can help me with. The brakes stick after a moderate to hard stop. Sometimes they release after a second or two but sometimes they don't. I learned to stab the pedal to release them but it takes a lot of fun out of driving. Any ideas?

The tach seems to be reading very high, the speedo is fluctuatiing wildly, and the map light and instrument lights are inoperative. I'm looking for people's experience and suggestions here.

Lastly, I need to put my new Irish reg number on the car and wonder where I can get the white stand-alone letters and numbers for the front grille.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

[archigator]

Congrats on becoming an Elan owner! It's the song that doesn't end...

Your sticking brakes are likely attributable to corroded brake pistons. You can remove them and replace them with stainless steel pistons from rd enterprises (http://www.rdent.com) or have the brake cylinders rebored and brass lined by an outfit like White Post (http://www.whitepost.com/brake.html). Either solution should give you trouble-free braking from here on out.

The flailing tach may be the result of an electronic ignition having been installed in the distributor. There are many previous posts here addressing that situation. The speedometer is a straight cable feed and may need simple lubrication where it enters the speedo, or the cable tip that enters the back of the speedo may be broken. If it turns out that you need a complete instrument rebuild, I recommend Nisonger Instruments (http://www.nsonger.com) who just rebuilt my water/oil gauge, but they do have a 3 month backlog. (As a 20 year Elan owner, I now have duplicates of all my instruments so I can have one repaired while the other is in the car.)

The instrument lights are simple to fix, but are notoriously dim. I've installed halogen lamps from Little British Car Company (http://www.lbcarco.com/). They're expensive, but very bright. Refer to the Owner's Manual for wiring layouts. Since the Lotus is a fiberglas body, many electrical connections are poorly grounded and require special attention. The grounding point for the instruments on my Elan is the bolt that attaches the wood dash fascia to the frame just behind the cigar lighter on the lower left hand side of the dash. I've run a heavy gauge black grounding wire from the engine compartment, back to the ground in the trunk behind the gas tank, with interim connections to other grounding points along the way.

All of the parts sources I have listed are in the USA, but I'm sure there are comparable sources in the UK.

I have come to really enjoy working on my Elan over the years and I wish you years of fun with yours.

Gary
'71 Elan Sprint
Miami, Florida

[John Larkin]

I got my white plastic numberplate characters (1960s type) from either Paul Matty or Christopher Neil about four years ago.

This guy here even does the red reflective rear plates that were required in Ireland in the 1970s : Steve Frampton, Framptons Classic Number Plates, PO Box 707, Waterlooville PO7 9AY, England. Telephone 0044(0)2392 264755. www.framptons.net www.americannumberplates.co.uk

If you want ACE Peak characters send me a private mail.

As a fellow Irish resident I think that the ZV plates that are given to imported cars over thirty years old are naff. You can choose to have 68-G-nnnn if you prefer --- you do not have to accept the ZV plate.

You can get bulbs here: http://www.vehicle-wiring-products.eu/V ... mepage.php You should consider LEDs.

You can the instruments repaired here: http://www.speedycables.com/inforequired.htm

John Larkin

[MintSprint]

If the brakes are sticking hard on, it may be the servo rather than the caliper pistons that is causing the problem. Corroded brake pistons can make the brakes bind a little, but it's unusual for them to cause everything to lock solid.

[Galwaylotus]

"If the brakes are sticking hard on, it may be the servo rather than the caliper pistons that is causing the problem. "

They bind firmly but are not locked. Usually they release after a second or two but once, before I figured what was going on, they didn't want to release and only got tighter, it seemed, when I tried to power through the problem. As soon as I smeddled burning brakes, I stopped and then they popped free!

It might be an internall collapsed brake hose, sticky master cylinder, or coroded pistons. When I test drove the car a couple of weeks earlier, it didn't happen but that was only a few miles.

[Galwaylotus]

Woah! It pays to proofread before sending. Thant should have read "smelled" rather than smeddled and ". . . an internally collapsed brake hose, sticky master cylinder, or corroded . . ."

By the way, thanks to everyone for the replies. I'll be following up shortly. Unfortunately, I have no garage so I'm at the mercy of Irish weather for doing any work!

[types26/36]

[quote="Galwaylotus"][i]"They bind firmly but are not locked. Usually they release after a second or two quote]

If you do have a servo fitted try disconnecting the vacuum line and plugging it as it could be that the booster is sticking, It will require a little more effort on the brake pedal.
There is a modification to cure this with a spring if it is a Lockheed unit and there are threads in the archive about it.

[billwill]

In my experience a waving speedometer is due to a worn out speedo cable. Lubricating it won't fix the problem, get a new cable.

If there is no electronic ignition, the Tacho problem may be dirty contacts in the springy loop that is used to conduct pulses from the ignition coil wire (white one) into the innards of the tacho. The white wire winds one and a half (?) times around this springy U-shaped bit of the loop.
Take it off & clean it with very fine emery paper & clean the fixed contacts on the tacho itself. then gently bend the U inwards so that it will contact better on its other half. don't overdo it or it won't connect at all.

It might also be due to taking the power line for the tacho from the wrong side of the somewhat crude voltage stabaliser used for the fuel guage. It is a simple thermal switch so the result is only stable when averaged over a long period of time (several minutes). As we found from earlier discussion in this forum the Tacho should take its power feed from the ordinary 12 volts after the ignition switch. I think mine is wired wrong, but as it is away at the moment I've not had chance to check this yet.

I am contemplating replacing my instrument bulbs with bright LEDs but I haven't worked out the details or what colour to use yet. Blue will be trendy I think this is going to involve taking out the guages & tacho & speedo & repainting their interiors with bright white or mirror 'chrome' paint.

You did switch the panel lights on didn't you? It's the right hand switch on an S3. Your problem could be that switch or the power to that switch, it comes from the main lighting switch.

Main suppliers of Parts for these Lotuses are Christopher Neil and Susam Miller
www.christopherneil.co.uk
www.mickmillerlotus.com

It may be worthwhile for you to join Club Lotus
www.clublotus.co.uk

[peterako]

Hi Galwaylotus,

One other thought on the 'binding brakes'.

If your handbrake works it is possible that the pads have been adjusted to give the normal low clearance to allow them to be effective. Nothing wrong with that....

BUT....if the retention spring steel trips that hold the pads away from the rear disks have not been adjusted correctly to hold the (especially) inner pad away from the disc this can (and has for me) lead to overheating, burning smells, binding (slowing feeling) etc from the rear disc.

In theory this should be consistently a problem, BUT as with life in general it could be randomn too depending on use of teh handbrake.

If it;'s this and not the aforementioned (in the thread) servo or calliper pistons then it's very easy to remedy

As an aside, I've replaced my servo (was leaking) and rear calliper pistons in teh past 6 months. It's not a difficult job. Parts (except teh original Girling Servo's) are readily available and not too expensive.

Watch out for the horses....two and four legged ones!!

Peter