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andydclements

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Blog Entries posted by andydclements

  1. andydclements

    Damper failed

    By andydclements,

    Well, since restoring this car I've not used it much. That's not much for a car that I planned to be my daily driver. I used the red one quite a bit until I finally traced the misfire issues and so had confidence in being able to get to the destinations and return under the car's own power. I used the Berlingo when the weather was cold as it has a heather that is effective in less than 10 mins of engine running. I've now purchased a Signum as I'm ferrying my elderly parents around a lot and they cannot fit in the Excel and my Mother had difficulty getting in the rear seats of the Berlingo, and the Signum is more reassuring to drive than the Berlingo so there's less of a fear issue driving the Signum.

    The last few times I drove the gold Excel I noticed a knocking noise on uneven road surfaces. I tried the exhaust, driveshafts,. I tried spacing the damper further from the A arm so that they couldn't possibly make contact.
    With the car on the ramps (supported by its wheels) I discovered that the knock was replicated if I merely applied a small amount of upward force to the subframe. I managed to eliminate the body/subframe mounting form the list of options and so remove the damper. On inspection I have discovered that the damper has a knock in it giving circa 5mm of longitudinal movement without dampening, almost as though low on oil I suspect something inside has come apart. As the dampers are probably more than 2 years old despite the low mileage I doubt I'll the the manufacturer to honour the warranty, and without finding purchase info I doubt they'll even agree to assist in the funding of the repair, so I'm going top purchase just one damper (which is something I'd normally not do) on the basis the other damper (driver's side) is very new and has had very little use so it should be a reasonable match to the new one.
  2. andydclements

    Misfire

    By andydclements,

    Ever since taking the car out of the garage (spring time) I had a misfire, slight at tick-over, fine at full throttle but very pronounced under acceleration, although it went away sometimes. I'd tried carb adjustment, ignition system and finally noticed a correlation between issue and fuel level in the tank (I'd initially though it was fresh fuel made it go the first time).
    In the knowledge the issue only became really noticable at 1/2 full tank and got worse until at 1/4 full it was a real PITA, I ordered a new fuel pump. Today I fitted it (Facet type) and despite the car being nearly at 1/4 tank it seems to idle without a misfire, although it may become more smooth once I've re-adjusted the mixture (it must have been slightly over-rich compared to optimum to counter the pump issue).

    Now, to get on with other things and possibly go shopping and take the car for a test run.
  3. andydclements
    I still haven't been working on the silver car as such but have been removing the Air-Conditioning from the red car (the AC never worked since I've had it) to provide some necessary parts for fitting AC to the silver car.
    That's now all out of the red car,but I guess I'll have missed something and be cursing it after I've sold the red one. What it is that I'll have missed, I don't yet know.

    Wheels, I need new tyres for the gold car, it has newly refurbished Speedlines. The silver car has Oz which are in need of a refurb. I could just have new tyres fitted to the Speedlines, or have the Oz ones refurbed and fit new tyres to those, using them on the gold car until it's ready (2015 at this rate). Choices, choices.
  4. andydclements
    I've been fitting the RHS front suspension today, yesterday and most of previous day taken by helping a friend move home. Having dragged myself from the bed and made my aching body move I decided I had to achieve something today. Having struggled to get a bolt for the suspension at short notice (if I'd known I needed them I'd have ordered from SJ) I found the LandRover Discovery 1 uses a 1/2 UNF 61/2 bolt on the A bars, so yesterday I obtained a pair form the local 4x4 specialist.

    Putting the main front pivot bush in is fine (poly Non-Genuine), until you push the steel inner tube in, there's just a fraction too much material and so the push then pushes out of the lower link by 1-2mm meaning it's a pig to get into the subframe. I ended up filing the steel washers to form a taper and so drive them in between the bush and the subframe tubes. That was still very difficult and involved tapered punches, a slotted punch (slot means you can drive a washer in on its edge) and finally a 6inch bolt with the end filed to form a taper.

    The poly bushes for the top wishbones (first time I've used these as they were not available in this form before), seem OK. Again, a small amount of excess poly material as they bulge out of the upper arms once the inner tube is in place but as they are not limited by the installation in the same way that the lower one is it's OK.

    Then comes the damper (OK, I'd put the spring on, tried and realised the damper will not go in the way the OEM ones come out, so the spring was removed again), I had to do the usual trick of threaded bar and a pair of nuts to expand the lower link at the point the damper secures to it. Even having opened it up 1mm-2mm I still had to taper an edge of the spacer and then drive it into place with a punch and big hammer (the bolt with a taper came into play again).
    annoying thing with the dampers, the adjuster may contact with the spring. If it does it will come off.


    The ARB is not back in place, and it's not for want of effort but I gave up and decided it's much easier once the other side mount is removed and I can fit the ARB to both sides at the same time then secure in place with the new poly ARB mounting bushes.
  5. andydclements

    Still misfiring

    By andydclements,

    I have found that having enriched no 2 (that's the cylinder than showed little change when the plug was pulled during idle at misfire (so assumed that's the one), the idle misfire goes. I have since found that the misfire had pretty much gone at acceleration also, and gone at constant throttle. It did, however, give a misfire under prolonged idle and acceleration following prolonged idle, as though the plug is becoming flooded.
    I think it may be spark related, either strength or timing. Although you'd expect both to be the same across all cylinders, a bit of corrosion on the reluctor could do it. As a result, I'm getting a dissy to swap it out with. I'll also try an new coil.

    I cannot try much out on the car as a couple of days ago it sprung a PAS leak which I mistaken thought was the rack (two puddles each approx 6 inches in from the wheels) but having been under the car, dried it off and then been under the car with engine running and steering wheel wiggled I've found it's a poor repair on the PAS supply pipe to the rack. As it's push in connectors and a non-standard pipe to the older style pump, I've ordered new pipes from Lotusbits.

    I also traced the exhaust leak, thought it was the flexi, as the car grounds out on some speed bumps but also the pat as I drive into and out of my driveway each day. It seems it was just a nut having come loose that secures the down pipe to the manifold, probably worked loose due to the repeated jarring.

    While under the car I also noticed a slight leak of hydraulic fluid on the clutch slave cylinder, so new one ordered, will need to fit before that slight bleeding turns to a leak that's enough to let pressure fail.
  6. andydclements
    It's been misfiring in certain situations for pretty much as long as I've been running it. The other night (why did it coincide with the night I was due to go to a car meet?) it went form partial misfire under acceleration to full missing on one cylinder under any condition.

    Spark is good, compression seems good, I've checked for blocked jets and fiddled with the mixture. It's still not right, but that may now be due to a soaked plug while checking out how much the engine speed dips when disconnecting that plug lead.

    One possibility is the reluctor in the dissy, the four spikes of that can each give a different signal, so a rusty one / bent one could mean a spark at the incorrect time.


    Given up at the moment, so have fitted the driver's door check spring. What a pain of a job with the door one the beam. Couple of hours, but the £1 worth of metal is now in place and the door stays open when required.
  7. andydclements

    Seized bolts

    By andydclements,

    Today the progress has been s.low, very slow.

    I found the replacement ball joint covers (couldn't find them last 2 days whilst looking), so I've put replacements on the lower ball joint and TRE, both were OK except they were damaged in the removal process that was necessary for other components.

    The bolt at the bottom of the damper was seized and cut off a few days ago, today I found the pivot bolt of the lower link was also seized. Having spent a couple of hours with no success in moving it, I removed the spring, cut back the rubber of the bush and then managed to cut through the inner steel tube of the bush. Once done it enabled the lower link and 2/3 of the bolt to be removed but still took another hour or so to break the head end of the bolt free from the subframe then 30 mins of pushing it out of the subframe using threaded bar and nuts, combined with rotation of the partial bolt.
    Thankfully it was 30 mins or so to remove that pivot bush from the link and a few mins to remove the top arm bushes.

    Now need the poly pivot and poly upper bushes to arrive and I can reassemble those bits.

    I also fitted one steering rack gaiter and secured the brake pipe front T.
  8. andydclements

    Seized bolts

    By andydclements,

    Today the progress has been s.low, very slow.

    I found the replacement ball joint covers (couldn't find them last 2 days whilst looking), so I've put replacements on the lower ball joint and TRE, both were OK except they were damaged in the removal process that was necessary for other components.

    The bolt at the bottom of the damper was seized and cut off a few days ago, today I found the pivot bolt of the lower link was also seized. Having spent a couple of hours with no success in moving it, I removed the spring, cut back the rubber of the bush and then managed to cut through the inner steel tube of the bush. Once done it enabled the lower link and 2/3 of the bolt to be removed but still took another hour or so to break the head end of the bolt free from the subframe then 30 mins of pushing it out of the subframe using threaded bar and nuts, combined with rotation of the partial bolt.
    Thankfully it was 30 mins or so to remove that pivot bush from the link and a few mins to remove the top arm bushes.

    Now need the poly pivot and poly upper bushes to arrive and I can reassemble those bits.

    I also fitted one steering rack gaiter and secured the brake pipe front T.
  9. andydclements
    Not strictly true that the window switch took all day. Once I had the door trim off it seemed sensible to investigate the central locking. First thing, no fuse, not blown, just not one in the slot. Fiddled with the driver's door module, no avail. I took it off and apart and found a few issues and eventually got it to respond to the power but that involved pulling the motor apart, cleaning the armature of rust and a few other things.
    I pulled the passenger door one off, found lots of water but still couldn't get the system to work. Lots of effort and I resorted to a meter to check that power was getting where it should when it should and that lead to the discover that one of the wires inside the door actuator had rotted through and left a gap of approx 4 mm between it and the copper plate it was supposed to be joined to. Replaced that wire, soldered it all up and things started working better. Put it all back on the car, all working fine. Put the trim back on the driver's door, and it stopped. I readjusted both actuators and it worked.
    The thing I've found is that mine (Lotus fitment) has a master on the driver's door but only a slave on the passenger's door. That means I can lock and unlock via the driver's door internally and externally, either will operate both doors. Try and do the same on the passenger's door and it simply cycles and returns to the position it was in, with the driver's door following suit.

    Radio was simple, just unplug two wires and transpose them, window switch was simply a case of rotating it.

    Slowly getting the little things done. if I'm to run this car as the daily driver for a while then I want things tro work and it to drive well, which leads me to another job, the rear bushes.
    It pulls to the right when accelerating hard. I will check the alignment but suspect it's bushes failed allowing the lower wishbone to move out of alignment, although it could be as simple as different tread patterns on the tyres- I must swap wheels with the other car to check this out.
  10. andydclements
    I didn't feel like working out in the cold (the interior of the garage is cold and there's not enough room to run the gas blower heater without it facing onto a part of the car or something else that wouldn't react well to heat (like 5l containers of chemicals). On that basis I haven't achieved much in the last few days.
    I have removed the front brake pipes and replaced most (need to drill out the LHS flexi from its mount), I still need to make and fix the ones running along and across the subframe.
    I had to remove the brake pipe T piece that's on the front subframe upright, so to reattach it I really need access from the damper/spring area. In trying to undo the damper (seized bush/ bolt combo) I pulled the spanner and instead of the bolt breaking free of the bush, the bottom of the damper broke free of the upright tube of the damper. A few mins of work with a reciprocating saw and both front dampers are free of the lower chassis links.
    I've also cut off the nuts that secure the body to subframe to ARB mount, in readiness for fitting new poly ARB bushes.

    The brake master cylinder reservoir had quite a bit of black rubber dust in the fluid but there are no signs of fluid leak beyond the piston so I've not changed any parts. I forgot to order a 12mmx1mm brass union so I had to re-use the original one in the rear brake bias valve. I also forgot to obtain a female brass joint for the front to rear line, one on order now. I had other choices but decided I'd stick with how it was originally plumbed in that way I am less likely to make a mistake and make a pipe up incorrectly.

    The oil bung was seized so had to be sacrificed to get it out, a new one has been obtained with a magnet to help collect any iron particles in future oil changes.



    I'm still concerned about the clutch as it doesn't seem that the pedal is moving as far as it should, it took a lot of adjust it to be anywhere near the normal pedal height. Once I get the dash fully out of the car (need to remove gearstick to do that) I'll have a go at checking it and adjusting).

    TREs are free to rotate as are the locking nuts so I'll be able to replace the steering gaiters (must get some).


    Not a lot of progress but it's all fiddly stuff that is involve din ensuring subsequent tasks are possible.
  11. andydclements
    A few weeks ago I mailed the local dealer (Stratton Motor Company, Longstratton, Norfolk) asking if there was any chance of a recall activity being done FOC. I had by now assumed they'd either not received the mail or were not getting any info from Lotus Cars. Yesterday I received an email from Ian (Service Manager) confirming the work hadn't been done and so was outstanding and that he would now order the parts.

    What's noteworthy about this is not what they are doing but how long it is after the recall was issued but they are still happy to do it. There's no requirement for a manufacturer to undertake recall work on an unlimited time-scale they can easily argue the customer has taken many years longer than normal to respond, the car has no issues despite being 25+ years old so really doesn't need the work, but they are doing it with no hesitation.

    Thank you Lotus Cars
    Thank you Stratton Motor Comany.

    Now to book the car in.
  12. andydclements
    Well, I had a go with the Glyptone stuff and whilst I have no reason to doubt it's better than the current Furniture Clinic approach (G= one coat, FC = colour and top coat)) it doesn't set very firm nor does it adhere very well. i think it's going to have rubbed off very soon.

    For the green Excel (long since gone to Mike's) I had planned to re-colour the leather to a lighter colour than it was. That never happened (car went) but I had purchased the FC solvent based (cellulose) paint and still have it. In terms of colour, the Glyptone stuff which I had matched to the original colour of the leather (piece sent was cut from inside the door trim) was a lot more vivid than the parts of the leather exposed to the sun for the last 25 years. The FC stuff I already had is a little bit more vivid than that FC stuff. Based on that I've decided to re-colour using the existing FC stuff.

    I've so far done the driver's door trim & handle, centre tunnel storage box, gear stick gaiter, handbrake gaiter and the trim between those two gaiters. It looks rather vivid, but I suspect the original colour would have looked rather vivid against the faded (almost cream) old leather colour.



    So, all in all, a bit annoyed that the G stuff doesn't stick well and that I paid circa 3100 for the kit and conditioner etc. A bit annoyed that I didn't think sooner about using the FC stuff I had, I could have achieved more of the re-colouring this week.
  13. andydclements

    Ignition etc

    By andydclements,

    Last time I was working on the car all seemed sort of OK and it was starting except, one final time and when I pulled the lugs I found the spark was awful, even straight out of the coil.

    With some help (remotely) from Matt I've reviewed, cleaned replaced bits and now the spark at the plugs seems better. Today, the car started almost as soon as the starter moved. Hopefully that's the last pulling the dissy etc for a while. I hope this also solves the problem of difficulty getting HC and CO parts of the exhaust emissions both down.

    Door lock (glued back together) is back on the car but the little blue piece of plastic fell when it was in the door and I cannot see it, so will have to obtain a new one. So, door trim back on as well.

    I also fitted one of the pair of new rear dampers, I am to do the other tomorrow. The old dampers were advised from the MOT test to be watched and with only 40 miles after the test it was obvious the light oil trace the tester had seen was coming fro the damper and wasn't the WD40 we both hoped / thought it was. I had wondered if the shock could be re-sealed but then I noticed why the seals had failed, the plating on the shaft had failed so it would have to be re-chrome shaft and then re-seal or what will actually happen- dump them.
  14. andydclements
    It went for its second MOT test (since I've owned it) and it passed, one failure point was the RHS rear fog lamp not working but I fiddled with the lamp at the station so he re-tested it and passed it.
    The car was an absolute PITA that day, started well, drove OK for most of the journey but become troublesome once it got hot, almost stalling as I arrived at the testing station.
    During the test it refused to run well and refused to start well. I left with the certificate, and it stalled approx 100m down the road, then another 20m on, then 1/2 mile later it stalled on a roundabout and refused to start. Thankfully it was a roundabout with more than one lane but despite coasting as tight to the kerb and putting hazards on I still had three drivers pull right behind my car and blow their horn for me to move.
    Greenflag arrived within 45 mins and helped push it off the roundabout, having checked it out decided it was ignition, which tied in with my diagnosis and so had it recovered as he thought there was a good chance it would break down again despite it having decided it would start again (seemed like something breaking down when hot).

    I spent the day on the car, from 8am today, and having replaced various bit I found that replacing the rotor arm and dissy cap didn't fully sort it but replacing the AB14 seemed to remove the misfire.

    I was getting exhausted (lunch would have been a nice thing) and so made a few schoolboy errors such as setting the timing light to 0 degrees advance then knocking the knob and setting it to 60 degrees without realising and then wondering why the timing seemed so far off despite having set it to 10 degrees static. I also managed to rotate the plug leads when swapping over to the new cap, I'm sure i held them the same way round.

    Anyway, it runs and runs a lot more evenly than it had since being recommissioned so I suspect the AB14 was causing me issues all the while and this was the first real run that it got hot.


    Tomorrow I need to replace the rubbers on the upper ball joints, the passed as they don#'t allow dirt in but they have a split so will be replaced to keep grease in.
  15. andydclements

    It failed

    By andydclements,

    Not much to worry me.

    Headlight aim- I didn't check as I hadn't moved it.

    The issues identified late Saturday then Sunday morning, carb needle not stopping fuel from pump, well I think that's most of one of the issues. It failed on emissions, being too rich and I think excessive fuel height in the chamber would do that, I already had it planned in to do a re-build of the cars due to the issue I found Saturday.

    Advisory on one top ball joint, both will be replaced as I have them just in case.
    Advisory on road wheels having lots of corrosion where tyre bead sits, again, have a set of refurbed wheels , not just in case, they are to go on here but wanted to drive it somewhere and only have to carry 4 wheels.
  16. andydclements

    LHS rear

    By andydclements,

    The weather did well to attempt to stop me doing anything on the car, having succeeded for a couple of weekends with the snow. Today it was a mix of snow, hail and rain, combined with strong winds, so generally unpleasant.

    I managed (between showers) to get the rear hub carrier off, clean it up, weld on the new dust/stone guard, paint it all, cut and press out the old rubber bushes, fit the new ones. Cut the damper out of the frame. Finally refitting the carrier but not the braking system. Due to the LHS rear spring being broken I have not bolted the new damper in pace fully, it's there with 80% of the old spring (that's 2 of the 3 bits) in place just so that I could return the car to 4 wheels and close the garage door.

    The list of parts required is growing, rear spring, front spring, long bonnet pull cable, possibly seatbelt mounts (I may make some), my hope is to make one decent list so that I can have it sent by Mike in one lot.
  17. andydclements

    She starts

    By andydclements,

    I had hoped that the other week when I tried to start it, that it would fire but I'd found no fuel in the carbs so checked the fuel tank and found it empty and I do mean empty not just below the take-off level. The small amount of fuel that had been there had obviously evaporated.

    I put fresh fuel in, checked that the shut-off valve was making a noise when powered and tried to get fuel to the carbs. After approx 30 mins of the pump (not an SU) running I found I still had no fuel in the carbs, nor was there fuel to the supply to the carbs (so ruled out blocked float valve. yesterday I checked and had fuel to the pump but none past it. I replaced the (plastic cylindrical) pump with a facet one. Lots of brown (rust) coloured sludge came out of the old pump. By the change in pump noise I could tell it had managed to fill the carbs but alas no fire in the cylinders. I then checked for a spark and couldn't find one. After checking a few things I replaced the coil, still no good and finally traced it to a poor connection on the dissy-amp lead. It was good enough to give some AC volage when I span the dissy by hand but was found to be high resistance. I've found that lead is brittle, so brittle that i had to clear insulation away with a knife and solder good wire to it in order to crimp to it, the old wire just snapped each time. I now have a spark.

    With fresh spark plugs (old Bosch ones were wet with fuel), new dissy cap, new rotor arm (non-rivet type), new coil it starts. It's a bit loud having no rear boxes and no air box, it's also a bit metallic as the exhaust pipes are resting on the suspension. This should be OK enough to drive it up the ramp that is in the garage, so I can get decent access.

    That is success for the weekend almost met, the definition I set myself was to have it on the ramp, that now means I need to clear away the tools I used yesterday to replace a neighbour's CV join and the other things in the way, winch the car backwards , set the ramp and drive it on.
  18. andydclements
    I've been laid up with 'flu for a week or so (didn't feel up to working on car sat & Sun, had to work from home yesterday & today as I am worse and couldn't drive in to work). So, I've done nothing physically to the car.
    I have just called Mike at Lotusbits and will soon have nearly £900 debited to my credit card. reconditioned cooling rad, reconditioned air con rad, pipes to rad (fittings have changed) and drier. Bushes, ARB mounts, seatbelt mounts and carpet set. In a way it hurts having to order £900 of parts as the car cost me only approx 50% more than that, however the plan is to have a good example and so I'd be paying circa £5k for one that's ready and then not know what is in store for me any time after that. This way I'll get to inspect most parts and replace lots of bits that I'm not happy with, and it should still be way under that cost.
  19. andydclements
    It went to Stratton Motor Company last week for the ARB mounting bracket recall work. It was misfiring on the way there and the way back, so bad that they didn't take it for a test run for the work, which was fair enough.
    The misfire was partially due to the MOT in the winter, to get it to pass the emissions I had to wind the mixture in so much that it ran weak, that was due to a failing (I didn't know that until after I left) AB14. The AB14 failed on the way home form the MOT.

    So, last weekend it was time to check the timing, it was approx 1 degree out, which wasn't bad as part of the symptoms of the failing AB14 was the firing to become erratic when warm, so getting to to 11 degrees was chance. Once the timing was corrected, I corrected float heights by approx 1mm, set the mixture to basic and sorted the air bleed so that all venturi were even. It not runs smoothly.


    That left me with, fuel gauge not functioning, wipers only parking correctly when on intermittent and the radio having the switched and permanent supplies transposed.
    The fuel gauge turned out to be a poor connection from the loom to the gauge, that was despite me getting +12v at the sender unit from the gauge.
    After much disassembly and swapping of parts I found the wiper issue to be the park switch, what through me and made me not suspect it was that the wipers parked on intermittent. At least I got to clean the motor out and grease the wiper mechanism.

    Now to try and put it all back together, then work on the radio supplies and window switch (one is upside down).
  20. andydclements

    It's taxed

    By andydclements,

    Waiting for tax disc to arrive so I can try it on the road.

    Today I worked on the carbs, balanced them to get air pressures aligned and it does seem to run a little better on tick-over and rev up nicely but the real test will be when it's on the road.

    I've replaced the otter valve (complete with ali tube) with one I ad in the store and the fans no longer come on as soon as the ignition does, they do however come on when it gets hot so that's a good sign. I've replaced the rusty header tank with one I'd repainted so that's a little tidier.

    I'm now really keen to get it on the road and find out how it behaves while driving, hopefully that tax disc will arrive soon.
  21. andydclements

    Door beam

    By andydclements,

    The previous owner replaced the door beam on the driver's side but didn't get the passenger's side one done. I have a second hand passenger's side beam sitting in the shed (as you do) so today I knocked the hinge pin out (it was seized), cleaned up the rust on the one end of it that had rusted, drilled and tapped a thread into the beam tube that the hinge runs through and re-assembled. I've fitted a grease nipple in the tube so not only will it be full of grease to start with rather than just a small amount each end, it will allow topping up at service times.
    Unfortunately the snow outside hasn't gone away and I don't fancy working in it so the door is not coming off the car yet. When it does the plan will be to use an engine crane to lift the shell (door drops when opened) - Ah I've loaned crane out...
    Anyway, use crane to lift shell, then remove glass and metal frame, unbolt shell from beam, unbolt top hinge plate from body of car, manoeuvre door shell so as to remove beam from it and insert replacement beam without having to remove wiring etc. once it's done I may end up posting that I had to remove the door shell from the car and wiring etc. It's not a lot of difference but that may save me having to adjust whatever support I use for the door when attempting to re-attach shell and beam to the car.
  22. andydclements
    Having put the car partially back together I discovered that although the wipers then correctly parked when switched off (the original fault) the intermittent wipe feature was no longer, intermittent. It caused the wipers to be on low speed constantly.
    Having resigned myself to the need for a new switch, time being the awkward bit about it, not the £9 expense, I realised late last night that I had one more switch not in use and easily accessible. Now, having raided the switch from the silver car, I have working wipers and a new switch on order for the silver car.
  23. andydclements
    It's been a hard week at work, both mentally and in terms of volume of things I needed to get done so I was finishing around couple of hours late each night and getting in half to an hour early each morning, that has taken its toll on my enthusiasm this weekend.

    I was up and about quite early but went and got a new battery and coil (I had been using the battery form the Elf but returned it for the Elf's MOT test so now seemed the time to get one for this car. I wanted a new coil to replace the one I put on Simon's car recently that was destined for the gold Excel and a new coil ready to go on this car also. I was back from the parts place mid-late morning but the fact it was cold outside and snowing gently really didn't make me want to go outside.


    I have managed some progress, the bracket that the fusebox secures to is now itself secured to the car and the fusebox to it. The replacement bonnet pull cable has been threaded into the long run (pig of a job) and made to work. The bonnet latches have been re-shaped as they were forced outwards and back when the previous person had to get the bonnet off by cutting the hinge bolts off (cables cut through). The aluminium casting that the hinge bolt goes into in the bonnet has been re-attached and both bolts replaced. With a few cable adjustments, bracket adjustments etc the bonnet closes, stays closed when a reasonable opening force is applied and opens when the lever is pulled. I'll take that as success.


    I was going to move the car into the garage onto the levo-artis ramps but I found what little petrol was in the car 12-15 months ago has evaporated (no surprise looking at the state of the cap seal) and putting 1/2 gallon didn't seem to get enough to have the fuel arrive at the carbs. Maybe I'll get another gallon and find out whether that helps, I hope the tank isn't holed.
  24. andydclements
    I had to get my hair cut this morning so it delayed the start a bit, with breakfast it was effectively 10:00.

    I started trying to remove the water pump with the bonnet on but very soon decided I'd need if off as it would save time overall. I gave up and removed the timing belt as well. I decided given the choice, struggle with two suborn bolts into cast ali that secure the steering pump bracket to the water pump or remove one bolt from the sump and do those two bolts using the bench vice, the one sump bolt was soon out.

    I spent ages looking for,
    1) refurbished water pump I lent Terry (I may have not collected it back from him)
    2) water pump refurbishment kit. I know I have one somewhere.
    3) Brand new water pump.

    After a couple of hours I found no3. Great? No. I now recall it's the sort with no boss at the bottom for the pump etc. It's destined for the Turbo Esprit as I plan to move from mechanical pump to electric vac pump. Pump bearing pressed out and it's easy to see where the old coolant had crept past the seal.

    So I cleaned the old ali water pump body and prepared to paint it in ali engine lacquer. Oh well, that tin of paint is empty and what little had been left was dried as the lid must have leaked slightly. I'll have to get some during the week.

    Ah well, onto the dampers.

    Old one off on the passenger side and it's easy to see why two things happen. 1) it bounces a bit on the front end, 2) it passed the MOT test as there was no oil leaking form it.
    This was because the oil must have left many years ago and as the car had been standing unused by the previous owner the oil on the outside must have slowly drained off the metal.
    2nd hand AVO now fitted to that side.

    While I had that wheel off I removed the track rod end, freed off the locking nut (2 big hammers) and replaced the steering rack gaiter. The other side had been done before the MOT test but this was seen as a "nice to do" although once off I found a small hole in the old one. I also set the TRE in by half a turn to straighten up the steering wheel, I'll have to adjust the other one out half a turn to equal it out.


    So, abit more progress but not all that I wanted to do was achieved mainly due to wasted time looking in that really untidy garage.
  25. andydclements
    Oh well, I forgot I'd not checked / set the tyre pressures after I had the tyres fitted. On the road it didn't feel as sure footed as the other Excel and when home, sure enough, 30-32 PSI in the tyres.

    Now the stomach bit. I had a coffee and biscuits before setting out, on the ride they were threatening to leave me again. My Turbo Esprit had softer suspension when it was on the wrong springs and so sitting at full extension. I think from that I need to adjust the fronts to be a little softer and the backs a bit more than that.
    I know the individual wheels / components move so it's not frozen joints but the back is pretty solid and not surprising, when I put my foot down a little it felt as though the back end broke free a little bit. I couldn't drive it in anger (even on a main road) as it was raining slightly.


    On the positive side, the engine does seem to be full of life, picks up nicely and sounds smooth, and the brakes (fronts) seem a bit more confidence-inspiring than the normal ones.
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