What did you do to your Lotus today...

[JonB]

After the rainy trip to the South Downs, I took the car off to a country pub with a mate on Friday night. Rather foolishly ignoring a “flood” sign, I went round a sweeping left hander straight into what looked like a miniature lake. Sploosh!

Pleased to say the car was fine and there were no leaks, but I was out washing it again yesterday!

Second time in as many days. Harumph.

[nmauduit]

Finished the Brake lines on my new chassis:

The attachment IMG_9934.JPG is no longer available

Brake lines on Federal (LHD) cars with the Tandem Master cylinder are a disaster due to the "T"s still being on the RHS of the chassis rail.

The LH front brake caliper is closest to the master cylinder, but Brake fluid goes over the vacuum tank twice to get there!

I note that on my '68 LHD Fed S4 the (3) brake lines travel behind the cross member, not in front/above it (see photo of a well oiled chassis, following an oil filter gasket ejection after at the end of a straight).

'68 Fed S4se brake lines route behind cross member

[pharriso]

Nice neat job. I like to see straight runs of brake lines.

I guess your Sprint is on it's original chassis?

It is, won't be replacing it for at least 12 months though....

[pharriso]

I note that on my '68 LHD Fed S4 the (3) brake lines travel behind the cross member, not in front/above it (see photo of a well oiled chassis, following an oil filter gasket ejection after at the end of a straight).

The attachment P1050243.JPG is no longer available

Must have changed then, I have copied my existing lines on my original February 1972 Chassis:

Another view of the crazy design:

p.s. I guess your brake lines won't rust!

[nmauduit]

p.s. I guess your brake lines won't rust!

I've cleaned it up since (the photo was taken to document the oil filter gasket failure...)

the route above is neater than on mine, though maybe a bit more exposed when you lower the engine in the chassis... I'm not sure I have the straps above like yours (the Fed is away, but I have a '68 UK S4 nearby that I'll check), so maybe there was a change in the original route at some point.
________

upon checking, the '68 UK chassis was like the '68 Fed one, with straps for routing behind the cross member (though torn away along the years and not much of them left) - but the Lotus Replacement chassis bought in the early 90es to replace it has the top straps :

'68 UK S4 chassis

1968 UK S4se rear of cross member brake line route

1990 LR replacement chassis top brake line route

[JonB]

Spent some time this morning diagnosing poor cold cranking performance. Suspected the battery and starter, then looked at the main earth point in the boot again. Realised they are bolts coming through the chassis where the rear box joins the exhaust pipe. Duh. Totally rusted as was the contact point on the chassis. So, out with them, ground the rust back, fitted new M10 bolts with a bit of grease and some anti rattle washers. Then after torquing them up good and proper, quick going over with some paint to add protection. Then, reconnect battery and loom grounds and hopefully all sorted. I say hopefully because I need the car cold and not in a “just started” state (had to start it to put it on the ramps). Tomorrow I will know for sure.

Later on, had test drive with a prospective new owner. Sun out, glorious. Damn, it is proper quick now! You don’t quite realise how fast it accelerates until you are in the passenger seat and the driver boots it hard. Then your head gets shoved right back..

[alan.barker]

Better to stay with Unified Threads and not use Metric
Alan

[JonB]

Doesn’t matter, the bobbins are shot. I used what I had to hand that was clean zinc plated. I’m pretty sure that they function the same as the old bolts, with the added bonus that they will work as effective conductors.

[seniorchristo]

My Elan has been on jack stands six months while I attempted to fix four problem areas.

1) The right rear shock absorber had earlier pushed through the top spring cap which I replaced with one from TTR. I wanted to also replace the left side as well to prevent a similar occurrence. As I did this I noticed the spring cap had a different profile from that of the lotocone. I was able to take up some of difference with special washers. I think Kelvedon sells a better version of this.

2) I rebuilt a 3.77 differential over the past year (just for grins ) and although I'm happy with my 3.55 I wanted to see if the 3.77 was leak free and quiet. So I replaced it while I had the left side suspension apart.

3) My original oilpan had a hole which I twice attempted to repair with JB Weld. Although it seemed fine at first it eventually leaked so I resigned myself to pan replacement. I thought engine out would be the proper way but after surveying my limited work area I decided to replace in situ. First step was converting to a removable chassis brace, then removing the sway bar and starter. Next I removed the 16 bolts and the pan almost fell out on its own. After considerable research I decided to use allen screws with lock and flat washers. Since I knew working below the car on my back would be difficult, I made four removable studs for the four corners of the pan. Also on advice from Ken Grey I used Cometic pan gaskets which are fairly rigid and don't compress and squeeze out like cork. I coated both sides of everything with Permatex #2, adding a liberal dab of black silicon to the corners where the seals and gaskets meet (thanks Rohan). It was a bit difficult offering up the pan and getting a bolt started but the studs are what saved the day. I was sure the seals probably shifted as they weren't the cork strips and seemed to be an odd fit in the crankshaft seal covers. After tightening all the bolts I had a close look and all seemed ok. Filling with new oil it sat overnight and there were no spots on the floor the next morning.

4) I was having trouble with clutch disengagement and had tried all the usual suspects with no success. I narrowed it down to either the clutch plate hanging up on the input shaft splines or the input shaft hanging up the pilot bearing. On advice I decided to try WD-40. I didn't have any long nozzle tubes in my garage so I went shopping at Lowe's and found exactly what I was looking for. Perfect for reaching between the clutch fingers.

After letting her down off the jacks and tightening the wheels I proceeded to slowly drive around the block expecting (based on previous experience) to encounter noises, problems, etc.. Things seemed ok so I took it out on the highway for an all out road test. I was surprised everything went well. The clutch seemed about 75% better, the differential was quiet as a mouse and there were no other strange noises. I wasn't just surprised I was amazed. . After getting home and letting the car sit for awhile I do notice there are still some mild leaks but the oilpan is dry all the around. I'm all set for the PALS event this weekend.

[miked]

Purist look away. Almost finished my bike carb instalion. On 2L Zetec. Nodiz works a treat.
Car started and ran straight away on ZX9R carbs from Kawasaki. Balance was almost there from eye setting. Made up remote vacuum port tapping to side of cam cover. Dialed in with carbutune. Spot on. Re fitted choke.
Did road run and it accelerates and drives clean. Bike standard jets and 2.5 turns on the mixture screws. Engins ticks over really nice and will go so low.
Never heard it so balanced and seen exhaust so clean. No flat spots.
Fitted piper cross cold air box with integral filter and nose hose.
Very quiet.
Altered throttle pedal pull position for cable to magnify movement. Just making up a cable type return with spring adjust to firm up and return the pedal a bit more snappy. Since bikes have a double pull arrangement, there and back..
Going to roalling road at Danst on Thursday (if we can still go out) to get the best from it. I am well pleased. The Danst inlet manifold and spun alloy velocity stacks look the business. Should have had a go at this years ago on a twink.

Mike

[Sploder90]

Spent many fruitless hours searching everywhere for the gear knob emblem (black badge) which is AWOL..
did not notice was missing until the other day. Now at the point where I consider having to strip all the interior bits / dash lower trims and the radio back out to see if it somehow got caught up with the wires etc during the install...
or worse still drop the gearbox to see if it has gone through the split in the gaitor..

Worst case I'll have to swap it for a new one...

This is way worse than the virus

The plus side of the virus: the engine is getting closer to completion

[Bud English]

Almost finished my bike carb instalion. On 2L Zetec. Nodiz works a treat.
Car started and ran straight away on ZX9R carbs from Kawasaki.
Mike

Mike, Please give some thought to starting a thread on your carb conversion in the Mods section. There are probably more of us modification heretics on here than you know.

[miked]

Thanks for the interest Bud,
I will start a thread in the Mods section.
Cheers

[661]

Ready for paint

[RichC]

Washed it for first time this year. Sunny but a chilly wind from the east. Took the photos for Peter James insurance agreed valuation. Mot due in April so will need to sort that before I submit the form...