andydclements
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Blog Comments posted by andydclements
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Well, the new damper arrived Friday and due to other activities on Saturday, I fitted it to the car today. Fairly painless job, given a decent spring compressor.
I noticed two things while doing the job:
1) Gaz had informed me the age of the damper is in a code on the unit, comparing old and new, along with a guess as to when I purchased, I'd guess that Q02 means Q= 2014 Feb, and N02 = Feb 2012, so they were 3 years old, some of which was time during the restoration, and some was time while I sorted the misfire so didn't drive it much, giving circa 3,000 miles life on the old unit.
2) The spring seat on the new unit is approx 6mm higher than on the old unit. This means there's no clearance issue with the lower suspension arm for the new unit, unlike the old one which almost touches. I plan to have the old failed unit rebuilt but will ask them to check whether it was built to the correct specification, and if not they will be asked to correct it (they or the credit card company will have to sort that). To make the old units not foul I previously had to put additional washers to move the components further apart, but that was only marginally successful moving from hitting to crushing any dirt between them.
I also found that, despite opening the doors in order to try and dry the car interior, the passenger footwell was soaked and slightly mouldy. Carpets washed and Vax used, I looked to the source and found the body wet where the seal attaches, so fresh silicone on, hopefully it will improve things. I do now need to replace the main front and rear headlining to remove the mould, but thankfully not any of the more intricate parts.
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Sunday I went for a test run, having been doing other things, I went circa 25 miles to a brewery and back, all fine, no misfire, seems to pick up well when given the big one, and now that it's had fresh weights stuck to the wheels again it wasn't vibrating.
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Well, I have a bit more work identified as required- the clutch system. Pressing the pedal didn't cause the clutch to disengage but it did cause the pedal to stay pretty close to the floor when released. When pressing the clutch the last couple of inches of movement that remained the slave was moving the push-rod a little so I suspect the master is at fault. It has to be that as the master is the more awkward to get at.
On a positive note, the car started in gear going up an incline (Levo-Artis ramps) and pulled strongly such that it would move forward without throttle. I take that as a sign the engine isn't in bad shape internally.
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I must more effectively control my purchasing when ordering spares.
yesterday I cut through one bolt as it has seized both in the damper bush and the lower link. That should be simple enough, it's just a 1/2" UNF bolt.
I searched but could find none of the right size, not even any just half an inch sorter or longer (there's approx 1/2" of the thread showing when tightened).
Today, search ebay for bolts. I found some, 4 1/2" x 1/2 UNF, comes out to ~ £2.50 per bolt if I buy them from that site as it's either singly, a pair or the bulk of three. I search elsewhere and find a couple of supliers and purchase from Spalding Fasteners. I ended up buying 20 of 4 1/2" x 1/2 "and 20 of 3 1/2" x 1/2". the delivery for the longer ones was going to be just over £10, the delivery for both comes to just under £9 (different courier comes as an option).
So that's £40 of bolts on the way.
I routinely replace nylon locking nuts when removed so at least now I'll not have to bother with cleaning threads on the bolts.
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I like that approach but have to admit I don't really worry about them being as straight as an arrow, the longest run tends to be straight for 4-5 feet so I just use the handles of some pliers, similar in principal to that tool but obviously only two contact points.
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That looks great, glad you're keeping the original styling trying to update doesn't really work on a car this is so obviously of the 70s & 80s.
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If it hasn't holed and you cannot detect fuel odour from any porous areas you could possibly get away with a decent resin type paint as long as you get a good key to the remaining metal and go up the lip of the tank so that any water that does get here doesn't have an easy route to be pulled along by capillary action.
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Hi, probably a question better posed in the main forum under the Elite/Eclat area as it is more likely to be viewed there, but the answer is yes, Lotusbits do them as part of an exhaust system.
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Other damper on, may need to soften the settings off a bit but I'll find out once I drive it. Awaiting a second hand exhaust from Mike Taylor.
One of the DRLs has failed and it seems to be an internal circuitry issue, comes on for a few seconds one connected then goes off. -
Shouldn't be too bad for you, mine's been off the road since approx Oct 2010 and it came off as things like the clutch and exhaust manifold needed doing, the list got longer as it sat there.
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Well, other damper is on and water pump is located. I'd lent it to Terry (local Excel owner) and had meant to go and pick it up but had forgotten until this week.
Picked up a pair of seals for the rear differential from the Local Toyota dealership, £16 + VAT each. Now the decision, fit the seal (or seals) in place with only removing the driveshaft and output shaft, remove the whole differential and fit new seals off the car or... fit the LSD that I had on the green car before scrapping it. -
All being well, yes.
I still has a list of things to be attended to, Fiz didn't realise I had literally printed the list out on A4 and was ticking things off. The main thing will be a test run to check for no misfiring. -
That must be a relief.
It looks to pretty to have a body fitted on it. -
Well, I couldn't get the CO down far enough to pass without it misfiring so I got the MOT station to do it. It took them a while but they managed it, just within the CO and just within the HydroCarbons limits, so not what it should be but it passed the MOT test. I'm going to have a look at the rest of the options to try and find the underlying issues. Could be timing, could be spark, could be carbs need the full overhaul I have planned to do. I doubt it it's not due to stale petrol as the fuel ran virtually out and had 20-30 litres of fresh added recently.
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Oh boy, the carbs had issues.
I pulled the tops off this evening and set about cleaning and fitting new parts.
I found the fuel level to be 1/8 of an inch higher in the rear carbs than the front.
Before dismantling I did a quick visual inspection of float heights, shocked at the sight I roughly measured them, 12mm and 9mm (back one), so compared to the 14.5-15mm that could help explain why I had fuel puddling in the venturi.
The front carb had a squashed filter capsule in behind the float needle seat, deformed by crushing, it also had the main gasket deformed, part of it had been folded back on itself (rubber type) so wasn't sealing correctly.
The fail for emissions was mainly CO, should be 3.5% and was giving 8.9%. I think given the above it would have been impossible to adjust the air bleed to get it to pass. -
HI Peter.
By White plastic bit do you mean the power plug? I think the brushes are OK and plug definitely is. You're welcome to them, I'll need a reminder on the day of or day before the next meet to put them in the car. -
I've hosted a few pics of the seats, with a shot of one cleaned seat once dry) and one not cleaned.
www.a-clements.co.uk
In the album "Gold Excel" -
I've found some 10mm shims I had made for the Esprit but then didn't need so may use those.
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Ah, it's funny yo should mention sheepskin, I keep meaning to purchase one. No a coat, just a skin. Nick Fulcher recommends them as seat covers, none of this fancy tailored tied on stuff, just punch a couple of holes, secure then via the head rest and away toy go. Comfy, warm and removable ready for washing every decade.
Damper failed
in E 906 return to the road
A blog by andydclements in General
Posted
Well, the car finally went back on the road today. Battery charged, so trip to the fuel station (that's nearly as expensive as a new damper) and more air in the tyres followed by a short blast on a dual carriageway then home. Engine running fine (despite being laid up), suspension seems a little bouncy on the short travel, perhaps I'll reduce the damping so the bushes are doing less of the work. Clutch bearing is noisy when the pedal is clear, which has been a fault for ages but being laid up has made it worse again.
Need to remove the interior trim, recolour the leather, replace the two pieces of roof lining that got damp and fit the front roof trim.
Then I need to use the car.