andydclements

Now Now, They are not problems, they are fantastic oportunities to gain a greater understanding of your car, your physical health and mental balance- being double jointed, haning limbs of varible length, the patience of a saint (or is that a saint on tranquilisers?) can help immensely. I've got 2 G-body cars, but one has the late gearbox and cable set-up, the other is an '84 (not turbo). The gears are quite different in selection between both cars. Congratulations on the purchase, don't forget it's beter to ask how to do something, there's bound to be somebody done that bit of work who can help, even if the question is How do I get to polish the sub frame with Autoglym as the galvinisation is a,little bit dull? I'm sure having looked under his car last month Troy polished his sub frame.

It must have been 3 working days between the desperate telephone call to Neil and the phone call from Neil to say he had them on the desk in front of him. I picked them up this morning, there was no que of 100 cars down Potash lane today, strangely there was last time I was there. I hope to say thanks to Neil on Sunday , and of course, Kimbers- thank you for the advice to contact Neil. Neil- have you been to the gate house ? I hope you're not tea total, although if you are I'm sure some others would help you out Saturday night. Andy

I felt guilty on the Esprit event, so local, should have been able to help - getting car mobile prevented me doing so. As such, If you want a hand with anything- just say so. You say just owners, what about if I actually get round to putting the new frame on the Europa, will another person be able to bring that with me driving the Esprit? If everybody gets together for a convoy, there has to be a point where the cars are in chronological order, and if we are looking at well in excess of 100 cars (I'd guess 250+), wouldn't the local council be willing to help organise some sort of space for a display- Earlham Park? Andy Any chance of them running driver training around it? maybe the full days, maybe something like the scare yourself sensible days?

Thanks for that tip Kimbers. I managed to speak to Neil today. He investigated, found 3 in the US and is having them shipped back, and provided they arrive,will make it so that I can collect from Hethel. Now that is great service. I can't see many manufacturers doing that for 2 items. Andy

From the phot, it looks like the plugs that hold the end cap on have sheared off. best pace I've seen knowing what the insides should look like is http://www.lotuscolorado.com/vulcangrey/ga...ng-rack-rebuild I wouldn't want to be driving it in its current state, the track control arm must be held by something currently 9probably the remains of the bush), but if that has already failed to some extent, how long will it last? I'd suggest you don't try and find out the hard way. You can get them refurbed, you can get exchange ones, or you can get kits to do it yourself, the choice on those is determined by experience, time and patience. Andy

Cheers Kimbers, I'll give neil a call, the car looks so sad, no wheels on, not driven for a while etc. I'll give Neil a call. Andy

I'm pretty sure I'll be going, but not in an Esprit - S3 has a brake judder issue, and Turbo need bushes which Lotus haven't got. So, I'll be in a Peugeot. The good point to that is, Lotus taking parts to Stoneleigh, me bring lots of them back in the Peugeot., perhaps I'll fit the roof bars. Have they got any spare body shells? Kimbers, the moment you see me trying to but another car you have permission to hit me. ( 2 Esprits, 1 Europa- not an S. and an old Riley are more than enough classics to contend with). Due to location, anywhere near Wymondham/ Hetherset seems like a good meeting point locally, then meeting up with some others further along. Andy

I haven't removed my cat yet, because I need to put in the bypass pipe, but I can do it , so if you want a cat pipe permanently, let me know and I'll get mine done. I don't need a cat as my chargecooled engine is in a G body car. Andy

Now that's timing for you. I replaced my front ones last week, with the exception of the anti-roll bar to lower link busg which is currently unavailable from Lotus. What's the betting they launch a poly version of that about 1 week after they make the rubber ones available again? At

Erm was I a total sod (or use any other suitanle term) in buying the one one Ebay recently (arrived today)? I'm not in a desperate hurry for oone, the plan was replace the one on the turbo with it, then move than one to the other car I'm going to get rid of. that way i get the nice newly refurbished one, and the person buyingthe other car gets one with little/no play. If you need one for an MOT and can't get one let me know. Andy

From the maual Inlet .13-.18mm (5 to 7 thou, .005- .007of an inch) Exhaust .25-.31mm (10 to 12 thou 0.010-0.012 of an inch) So, Inlet the first 2 near the fire wall are spot on, next 4 would be slightly large, then spot on, assuming thay are measured in mm. I am a bit surprised they all came out at multiples of .05mm, unless your gauges are in increments of that. Exhaust, only the last but one has an issue, it's a bit tight by .1mm. Do you have a micrometer to measure the shims when you take them out? If yes, remember the shims for the inlets that need adjusting need to be slightly thicker, and that one exhaust needs to thinner. Now , if you don't have a micrometer, you're going to have to go to an engine specialist and (make sure to identify which is which, and what the change needs to be) get them to measure them, and supply the correct sized ones. I've got a few shims ( few dozen or so) different sizes, but you'd need to know the sizes you need and we could just swap them over, if you were closer I wouldn't mind bringing them with a micrometer and sorting it, but the journey is a bit far. If you're heading to Stoneleigh, then there should be enough of us about to sort it. Andy p.s if you have a micrometer, use the measurements that tie in with it, either metric or imperial)

I'm glad I'm in the most populated age group (35-39), I could quickly transfer ownership of the S3 to my father, who decided to move it when it was parked on the road. He muttered about awkward to get i/out, well if that's the case I'll sell it before I reach his current age of 82.

I've just done the rear linkages on the Renault box and used standard joint , I could have purchased joints and beariings from mnay of the usual sources, but used my local bearing supplier. I bought and fitted the translator ones when i put the gearbox back in, but left the cables etc as I din't have time to re-adjust etc. Now done them. I've lost about 3 inches of front to rear movement on the gear stick, which isn't a bad thing, it's now a reasonable travel. I t feels so much better, can't wait to tackle the front end of the syatem now and get a nice positive selection. Cost- translator bearings about

It took me a while to recognise the wheel shot that is the cover. Fantastic photos, again well done to all those that organised the day including John to take the official photos, we'll get some great momentos of the day like this. Andy

Born? No Cobbled together by people with a hacksaw, glue and a couple of big hammers. Oh no, I forgot, they had more tools than that, they had a drill with bits, they used them to seem drill the sub frame where the gear stick is, to cut space for the reverse gear position.

Well I've finallly got my finger out and ordered 2 shirts. I thought green was nice, then thought "I'll have a red on with the S3 deatils on it", but there's no way I'm wearing a baby blue one to go with the blue of the Turbo car, and claiming the car is grey isn't going to work. Thanks for making these available again. I don't know how I missed the whole discussion before the cut off before the event.

Thanks everyone. I have to admit I hadn't considered the body being designed (either deliberate or accidental) to vary in width. Yes mine is a later sub frame and it has the running gear of a 92(ish), Later transaxle etc (that's why I initially put this in the stevens area) as I didn't know if the top & bottom links would be different compared to the G body with a Citroen transaxle. Im probably going to have to take several measurements aren't I? different points of the body, different point of the sub frame, repeat each side and see what I find. I guess if it had thinner wheels which didn't stick out as far I wouldn't be able to spot it so easily. Andy

Has anybody found that the body of their car is not in line with the subframe? I was looking at the wheel alignment today and stumbled on the fact that the body of my car is approx 5mm off centre at the rear. One rear wheel is approx 10mm further in from the edge of the car then the other side. If i had adjustable rear links I could understand it. I know I need to replace the suspension bushes as mine are old (I think it was Kato that said he didn't want to be following me round the track based on how bad they are). But I don't think worn bushes would account for such a large movement of the wheel/ body alignment. Any ideas? I am considering loosening the body once all bushes have been replaced, and attempting to correct it then.

I think (can't remember the years affected) the reason your headlights pop up is the "Dim-Dip" regulation that came in then went away after a very short period of time. When the parking/ side lights come on the dip beam of the headlight is made to illuminate to 20% of it normal intensity. I think it's in the manual somewhere. Andy

Don't know if anybody has spotted it, but the later (post85) bottom ball joints are part of the surplus stock price reduction , but are hidden away on the Excel page. Just bought my pair fo less the

So Paul, you think I have got the best of both worlds. G body & Chargecooler? I have to admit, I still thionk the G body is "cleaner" in its lines, and I guess the exra 55bhp doesn't go amis. Andy. p.s. found out today how they easily fitted a chargecooler to the existing radiator....... They used the air con rad for the cooler- it works, but a bit excessive.

To be fair to everybody who helped organise the GtYarmouth carpark, they are all pretty much hidden from the road with the exception of the most dangerous one (that's the bit that should be a central reservation for pedestrians crossing the road, remember the bit where we had to drive though to turn around to get to the car park). Andy

Terrible new to hear of the accident, but you've just got to look at the positive side. Your Esprit is no more, but the important things are, nobody was killed, and you walked away. You can replace evry bit of an Esprit / just buy another, but even the best medical science can't do that for you. All the best and have fun buying the next Esprit. Andy I remember going bakwards down the A11 near the Haverhill junction, that was bad enough, but thankfuly nobody was around, and I only spun about 540 degrees, missing all the kerbs and crash barriers. I hate to think how you felt at the time.

Fantastic couple of days, could have asked for better, really couldn't have asked for anything that good. Everything appeared to go smoothly, I guess it wasn't easy behind the scenes. But thanks. Even the weather wasn't really against us, have you got some "special" connections there as well? Thanks to everyone involved. Andy

Been mucking about with it (the Turbo one) all day, don't feel I've achieved much though. It still needs a lot of work before the restoration is complete, it's not going to be con, just respectable. Today, fit some carpets, I'm sick of the noise form dirt hitting the undersides of the floor. Fit the passenger seat, OK, swap form original to bucket, so I have a black car interior with 2 black seats instead of of 1 black and one dove blue. Sort out the mirrors, well bodge the mirrors, can't find why they've lost power,so I now have no power to cigarettte lighter socket on the drivers door, the power wire is curently on the window switch. Sort out why the passenger mirror isn't reponding correctly since the door card went on, oops little black wire connected to wrong black recepticle. Block off the hole in the wheel arch where the top suspesion bolt comes through. And so ends one day. Oh yes, I did spend a few hours cleaning it , but it will take more than that for it to be loking good. Andy