MalcolmS

Hi Giorgio, I have replaced these ARB bushes and saw the distortion as you describe and like you i figured it would be better once the weight is on the wheels. All the best, Malcolm

Hi Guys, Thankyou for the kind comments. With that encouragement i took this one today. Also tried it with boot and bonnet open but that just looked weird from above. Cheers, Malcolm

Hi Lex, Hopo, I will need to take the camera out with me and get some decent photos. Only ones i have are boring insurance ones. Here is a view that the insurers didnt ask for :-) For those interested in the technical details, its taken from first floor window utilising 3m of plastic pipe, the centre part out of the tripod and gaffer tape. Camera is Panazonic TZ5.

Very interested to hear what you say about the engine normally operating at 90°C. Mine runs bang on 60 when driving normally. If i stop and leave the engine running , the temp will climb to 90, or just above, at which point the fans kick in. I realise now that it should be operating at 90... in which case my heater might actually produce some heat. As mine is also a dry sump Ill be interested to hear what fix you decide on.

I removed the cant rails, then the four screws holding in the top trim with clock in it, and finally had to pop out the trim on the A pillar to get the top trim free. After that i pushed the clock out from the back. So next time i will just pull it out from front without dismantling the interior. Because my clock was not working in the car im not sure when it comes on and goes off. There are 4 wires. Pwr and Gnd and 2 others. When exactly does the clock come on and go off?

F.Y.I. for others hat want to get inside their clock. You need to squeeze the top and bottom together hard and pull the face off. On the lcd screen, mine seems to have burnt out in the bottom right corner hence none of the lower segments working. Anyone got a spare one of these clocks that works? Cheers, Malcolm

Hilly, I dont know if posting on this dated thread is the best way of doing things but I have problems with my Jaeger clock and you are the expert having repaired a few. In the car I have never seen the clock work at all. I have taken it out to see what can be done. When I connect constant and earth nothing happens. If I also connect 12v to the other 2 terminals it fires into life and does keep time. However.... the H and MN rocker switch has no effect so I cant set the time. Also, the bottom segments of the digits dont illuminate. Given these clocks are rarer than ambergris I want to try and fix it. My question is, how do i get the front panel off so i can get at the internals? Hopefully, Malcolm

Thanks Andrew.

Andrew, Had a look at the Adobe web site and not sure about what I really need... Does Photoshop CS6 alone (Not the Extended Edition) allow you to create the picture in post 76 of this thread where you have combined 6 shots to get the final photo? You do 90% of processing in ACR. Is that Adobe Camera RAW? Is that the same as PhotoShop Camrera RAW that they talk about as a Plugin to Photoshop? If it is, is it an extra charge for the plugin? ( I don't see it mentioned as an extra charge) Thanks for the help. Malcolm

Andrew, Fantastic!!! Love the photos. I'm interested in photography but have never got into the post processing of digital images. Haven seen your photos i've just got to go down that route. I have looked a few times at getting photoshop but its never clear to me what Photoshop product/version i would need. What Photoshop product would you recommend to do the things you do? Also can I ask, do you shoot these photos in RAW format? Congratulations again on the awesome photos. Malcolm

I would be interested in any Esprit meet organised.

Brilliant. Thanks Andy. Sounds doable so I'll give SJ a call tomorrow and order the bits. Cheers, Malcolm

Andy, I'm about to replace the ARB bushes connecting to the lower arm. Current ones seem to have completely perished and disappeared. I just want to clarify a few points from your description above: 1/ I assume you remove the front wheels to get access but nothing more... not brakes etc? 2/ Next remove the ARB mounts from the front of the chassis, that will allow me to move the ARB so that the nut at the end lines up with the hole in the rear of the Lower Link so I can get access. (This nut looks completely rusted) 3/ Put on the new bushes and then fix the ends of ARB into lower links. 4/ Finally, my concern is that once I do this the ARB will no longer aline with the mounts at the front of chassis so do i then lower the car onto say a pile of books so that he spring compresses and i can get the ARB into the fixings at the front? Phil, How did you get on with this job? Any other tips? Cheers, Malcolm

Hi Andy, Thanks for that. At least I can see why these numbers got it through the MOT. However I still don't have a feel for whether this is as good as I can expect or should they be close to 100% which would be almost twice as good as they are now. Does anyone else have the figures from their MOT test? Cheers, Malcolm

Hi all, When I got my Esprit MOT'd I got handed the BRAKE TEST RESULTS for the first time ever, as below. Service Brake Front Left 158Kgf Right 168Kgf Imbalance 15% Efficiency 26% Service Brake Rear Left 190Kgf Right 201Kgf Imbalance 17% Efficiency 31% Parking Brake Left 144Kgf Right 157Kgf Efficiency 24% The figures don't look great but I have nothing to compare them with. Based on the feel when driving and using the brakes I would say they are poor compared to a modern car but I have no idea if it is my specific Esprit that is poor or brakes are just soooo much better on modern cars. What figures do other people have from there MOT BRAKE TEST RESULTS for similar car, Giugiaro Esprit Turbo (82)? Cheers, Malcolm

Thanks Luc. I'll get some resin.

Just one nagging final doubt in my mind.... Do I have to seal the fiberglass where I have drilled a hole through it ?

Hi all, In appreciation for all the help and advice offered I wanted to give you fuller write up which may help others in the future. As you may have guessed, for me by far the most time consuming part of the job was taking things apart. Once I was past the inner door panel, the window jammed in a low position and the lifting arm both made access to the nuts releasing the motor and window frame very difficult especially the lower nut on the motor (yes there was only one) and the middle lower nut of the window frame. Below is a picture of the motor with only 3 fixing nuts as opposed to the standard 4. ( Had a problem uploading photos ... so no photos :-( ) The lower nut on the motor was easier to access once the window frame was out. Mentally this is now scarred on my mind as the 5 hr nut but I have taken steps to make it the 5 min nut if I ever have to do this again. Next photo shows the 5 hr nut now accessed by a hole I drilled to make it a 5 min job in the future. Also made reassembly a piece of cake. An important point to keep in mind is that when you undo the top nuts retaining the motor, the door spring is now loose and the door can open too far. So best to mark the position of the motor before removal so that you can put it back in the same place when finished. My window frame was broken so I had to fix that with the super steel as described in earlier post. Once that was dried next job was to get the window frame back in. Looking at the ware in the channels I made a guestimate of where I wanted to increase the spaces and where I wanted to reduce. There is no magic formula for this as it will vary from car to car. Three points that I think are important to mention at this point. 1/ The window glass needs to be in the frame and held in the up position with gaffer tape or similar. 2/ The door should be on the car so you can keep checking the car to window frame fit. No point having a working window if there is now a gap and its leaking. 3/ Once I was happy with the frame position I took off the gaffer tape and checked the window went up and down manually. Check this with the door open and again with the door closed. While doing this I saw that the guide rail (the bit of metal that the wheeled carriage runs up and down) was getting further and further away from the carrier channel ( the bit of metal at the bottom of the glass) as the window approached top. This would obviously introduce a lot of force and friction and was why my window used to slow alarmingly as it approached the top. To fix this I put a washer behind the upper fixing of the guide rail to get the distance between guide rail and carrier channel constant. After that it was just a question of reattaching everything. Carrier channel to carrier plate. Electrics to motor. Get the wheel of the lifting arm into the carrier channel and finally bolt the motor in position it came from. Considering how long it had taken to disassemble it was amazing how fast it went back together. Final check that the window runs smoothly from top to bottom and back up. Then on with the door panel and job done. Thanks to everyone that helped with advice, esp slewthy (Simon) who did send me a lot of details. Cheers, Malcolm

Hi Alan, Your car looks great. Hope you keep it as I live in Wootton Bassett and you are the closest Esprit owner I am aware of.... All the best, Malcolm

Hi Simon, Never used Quick Steel. Super Steel said on the front of the packet that it could be used on aluminium so I went for that without checking others. This sdtuff set in 5 mins, fully cured in 2 hrs. Cheers, Malcolm

Hi, Just finished fixing the window and putting it all back together. I'll do decent write up and provide some photos tomorrow as i am knackered now. Below is a picture of the window frame fixed with the "Super Steel". I was able to bond in the fixing strap to make a really robust fix. Very happy with it. The window now runs from top to bottom at a very consistent speed. (It used to start of lightning fast and almost grind to a halt in the last 3 or 4 cm. I always gave it a little helping hand.) Wish i could post a video :-) Till tomorrow. Thanks again everyone. Cheers, Malcolm

Hello again, Today i got the window motor and window frame out of the door. The window fram is broken at the point where thay all seem to break so perhaps this contributed to the window jamming... certainly can't have helped. I have glued it together with "Super Steel" and leaving that overnight to set. Hopefully tomorrow get it all back together and have super smooth electric windows. Till then, Malcolm

Ta Da.... door panel is now off!!! As you all said... it was just a case of pulling it off from the bottom. Was a tight fit but easy enough once i got past the fact there were no screws. Now the reason i wanted to remove the door panel was to fix the jammed electric window. I can see that the glass has come out of the guides in the bowels of the door. I'm sure I will be back with some questions but I'll have a go first and see how far I get. I do have slewthy's description as below.. I have now rebuilt the drivers door and window. I fitted the window lift mod, routing power to the motor direct from the battery, controlled by 2 relays from the original wires. Works nicely BUT the key to get the window to run quicky was actually in the spacers for the frame and the channel guide. Essentially, there were too many spacers in the channel guide fixing, to the extent that the window was being bowed as it tried to rise and fall. The clue to this was the window position in the frame channel ie it was not central in the groove. My advice to anyone with painfully slow windows is to loosen the frame fixings and if it runs better, something is out of true. Loosening the channel guide fixings would make no difference in this scenario. Thank you to everyone for all the help to date. Cheers, Malcolm

Choppa, Slewthy, thanks again for the replies. Seems clear this is stuck on in a none standard way so i will just have to use force to pull the bottom away. I'll leave it for Monday now as the football starts soon. Will let you know how i get on. Thanks, Malcolm

To everyone that has taken the time to reply, thank you very much. Attached are pictures of the door where I can find no further screws to undo!! Choppa, I am no computer whiz and have not been able to find the Slewthy thread you refered to. Do you remember the title of the thread or is there some way of searching for threads started by Slewthy? Thanks, Malcolm