Fall/Winter/Spring Projects for 0248k

[TWebb]

Steve,

Great progress. I will not make the show in Fayetteville. Hopefully I will be racing the Elan at Hallett that weekend. Still have things to complete, but we are getting closer.

Tim

[pharriso]

Great progress, good to hear that they found issues with your new Carbs.

[steve lyle]

Greg & Phil,

Thanks for letting me get away with having the speedo on the left! I'm honestly not sure if it was that way when I got it, or I inadvertantly switched them at some point. Although I've seen pics of other Elans with the speedo on the left as well, so heck, maybe the factory wasn't all that consistent.

[pharriso]

Greg & Phil,

Thanks for letting me get away with having the speedo on the left! I'm honestly not sure if it was that way when I got it, or I inadvertantly switched them at some point. Although I've seen pics of other Elans with the speedo on the left as well, so heck, maybe the factory wasn't all that consistent.

I think Speedo on the left is the normal (aka right) position ; 0260k certainly has the Speedo on the left.

[The Veg]

Glad to hear the news about the carbs and progress in general! And I know you'll be so happy to take the car to the show!

[steve lyle]

Greg & Phil,

Thanks for letting me get away with having the speedo on the left! I'm honestly not sure if it was that way when I got it, or I inadvertantly switched them at some point. Although I've seen pics of other Elans with the speedo on the left as well, so heck, maybe the factory wasn't all that consistent.

I think Speedo on the left is the normal (aka right) position ; 0260k certainly has the Speedo on the left.

Ok, I'm confused. I thought I saw you and Greg both telling Neil that his speedo should be on the right, in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=50881&start=15

[pharriso]

Greg & Phil,

Thanks for letting me get away with having the speedo on the left! I'm honestly not sure if it was that way when I got it, or I inadvertantly switched them at some point. Although I've seen pics of other Elans with the speedo on the left as well, so heck, maybe the factory wasn't all that consistent.

I think Speedo on the left is the normal (aka right) position ; 0260k certainly has the Speedo on the left.

Ok, I'm confused. I thought I saw you and Greg both telling Neil that his speedo should be on the right, in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=50881&start=15

I was commenting on water temp/oil pressure gauge & fuel gauge being reversed... I know what I was trying to talk about!!

[gjz30075]

Who's on first?? 0243K has the speedo on the left but my S3, which I think Neil's car is (an S3), has the
speedo on the right, hence my speedo/tach comments on Neil's car. Clear as mud

[2cams70]

I'll refrain from making any comments about your Weber carburettor expert's explanation about the carburettor issue because I might cause offence.

[steve lyle]

We’re on the road to Houston to celebrate a special 6 year old’s birthday this weekend, so here’s the progress for the week.

Headlights, lift mechanism, horns, air filter, etc. are installed and working. Remember how I said the heater valences could go on since the dash wiring was tested? Well, when I tested the headlights, they went up, but not on. It looked like my mate-n-lok connector for the column dip switch on the switch side had bad connections, so I replaced it. But still no lights. I expect the problem is the dash side of that connector, but I can’t work on it without pulling the dash, which I’m not doing at this point. So I made up a 2 wire loom to replace the signal wires for the hi and lo beam solenoids to the column switch. Next time the dash comes out I’ll figure out where the failure is.

The bumpers are painted and are sitting in place. I sanded, repaired, primed, sanded, and basecoat/clearcoated them. Most of the painting I’ve done has been single stage, so I found the difference interesting. I thought my primed/sanded surface was perfect, but the basecoat on the front bumper proved me wrong. Still, it was fairly quick to fix the flaws, spray some more basecoat, and continue on with clear. Very happy with the result, no need to wet sand/buff at all.

And late yesterday my new Webers showed up. I was concerned that I’d need to get another slave crank, as I’d left it on the carb I had sent in. But Randy and crew had put it on the new one, so no issue. We’ll see next week if they make a difference.

Very close now. Install carbs, paint bonnet, bolt in bumpers, a bit of interior trim. What could possibly go wrong?

[steve lyle]

Who's on first?? 0243K has the speedo on the left but my S3, which I think Neil's car is (an S3), has the
speedo on the right, hence my speedo/tach comments on Neil's car. Clear as mud

Interesting. Any theories on the reason for the switch?

[gjz30075]

Good question. Maybe Richard Parrimant (sp?) might know.

[steve lyle]

Bumpers are bolted in. Everything is installed in the nose and functional, and the grille is on. Tuesday the new shift gaiter was supposed to get picked up, but that got moved to Thursday. Once I have that, the interior can be finished.

But what about the carbs? Tuesday they got installed, and while the new shafts are slick and the throttles close more easily and completely, they, surprise, didn't solve the problem.

So today I went and got my B out of storage. It uses the same model Lucas distributor. Unfortunately it mates to the jack shaft differently, so I couldn't just swap them out. But I pulled off the condenser and the rotor, and moved them over to the Elan. And Voila - it runs. Sort of. Ben - who had helped with the first windshield install, thought the spark looked weak, and I guess somehow the condenser had failed in some manner to cause that to be the case.

As I said, it sorta runs. Actually, I can quantify that to exactly 75%. It's rough, and when I pull off the 2-4 spark plug leads, the idle drops way down, still rough. when I pull #1, no change. And it doesn't run steadily - it will idle for a while, then rev up, then come back down. Very strange.

But first, I went after the apparent miss on #1. The plug was brand new, and the cap contact looked clean, so the only thing left was the lead - so I put a new lead on #1. No change. I called Ken and he suggested vacuum leak. But while it was running I sprayed starter fluid around the carb/intake, and no change.

The only thing left to replace is the distributor cap - everything else being brand new or proven.. Any other ideas?

[steve lyle]

I picked up the custom shift gaiter from Ben on Thursday. So the interior is all in, and looks very nice to me. Still a bit of fettling to do, but it's a big improvement from when I got it.

But back to the carbs. The engine starts on command. Idles at 900. But still rough. When I pull the #1 and #3 leads, no change. So I appear to be running on 2 cylinders. When I had the initial problems, an Elan owner at LOG, sorry, don't recall his name, recommended an inline spark tester, which I got on Amazon. With that, I see a steady spark at all cylinders. But is it strong enough? When I hold the end of the tester near the valve cover, I can see a spark jump across at least 1/4" for both #1 and #3. So I'm calling that strong. The plugs are brand new NKG's, BPR6ES, or brand new Autolite 63's. In any event, there are BPR6ES's in #2 and #4. When I pull those leads, the engine dies almost immediately. When I start the car with the #1 lead pulled, and either plug version in the lead sitting on the valve cover, I get a good looking, consistent spark. Idle mixture screws on all throats are between 1 1/4 and 1 1/2 turns out from seated. Just for grins I switched the #1 and #3 leads - no change.

To add to the mystery, when I rev the engine up to 3000 RPM or so, its stays high and doesn't come down, at least for the several minutes when I waited. When I pull the leads at 3000 RPM, there's seemingly no affect on #1 and #3, maybe a slight drop but I'll have to put a tach on it to tell. When I pull #2 or #4, there's an almost immediate backfire, and significant drop in RPM. I switched the jets, - #'1's to #'2, and #3's to #4's. No change in behavior. Idle jets are 55 F8's, Mains are 120. Emulsion tube F11, and air correction jets 200's.

The 'no backfire' at 3000 RPM unless I pull the leads on the functioning cylinders makes me think that there's no fuel to #1 or #3, or I'd be getting backfires all the time. But why not?

I'll make some calls on Monday to talk to some Weber knowledgeable people about what might be going on. Until then I'll fiddle with some cosmetic things on the body.

[mbell]

55 idle jets seem large. For most engines that aren't to far from standard need 45 or 50. Do you have some shaker jets to test or wind the idle screw in a bit more?