alastair_james_cox

Thanks Michael, Denis, my motors have arrived today, so I'm just reading through your notes now. Does everything still work as described if the motors are flipped 180 degrees in the bracket? I like the idea of the drain hole in the bottom. Presumably the key dimension is the crank arm ... and the length of the connecting rod can be adjusted, depending on the height of the motor in the bracket? If it's flipped? Best, Al

Thanks David, the MX5 headlamp motors arrived today, so I'm just getting a plan together for those .. along the continuing cleaning up! Al

Thx Tony, Ill see if I can test the servo (somehow) where it is. Nuts! I did buy everything from one of the usual Lotus suppliers .. do you know what thread the nuts are? I’ll get some brass ones. But I guess I’ll now run the risk of winding the studs out?? Everything I thouch gives me the jitters … Best, Al

That's the manifold back on. Taking the spare off the original engine, getting all the rust off, getting the new studs in, painting it with stove paint and putting it back on with new nuts and washers ... must have taken at least a day in total. Can you take the manifold out with the engine in? They must have been a nightmare to work on professionally. Looking forward ... any thoughts on the servo? Will it be toast? Or can you bring these back? The brakes were working fine but as you can see ... (the reservoir needs a rebuild for sure). I've found all the MX5 headlamp conversion threads so will probably go for that. Al

Hi all, Long time no speak. Somewhere between here and my last post I managed to finish off most of the jobs on the house and built a garage for the car to go in .. so now I'm at the pottering stage. The engine is still out but it's back on the original box and I've been tidying things up. New cam cover seals, manifold studs, gaskets, fan belt, pulleys and a good scrub and paint of anything grubby. Next up is the radiator which is water tight ... but again needs tidying up. More hours (&hours) with a wire brush. Looking forward though I'm going to tidy up the engine bay and also sort the pop up lights while the engine is out. It's been a while so I was wandering what the relative merits were of restoring the vacuum system vs putting in MX5 (?) motors and some (home built?) brackets ... if the MX5 option is cheaper and easier I may go with that. What do you think? Does anyone make a kit? Best, Al P.S. Core plugs too .. I forgot to mention that.

Thanks Simon, It sounds like I have something wrong. I'm assuming the wire to C1 is the live feed and the C2 wire currently goes directly to the earth terminal on the battery (with an inline fuse). So thinking about it some more .... I'm not sure which wire in the current setup is sending power to the screen? I'll go back out tomorrow and have a poke around the engine bay again but do you mean these two relays from my post earlier in the week? Apologies for the dumb questions but wiring just melts my brain. Best, Al

Thanks Simon, That helps a great deal ... I've started getting to grips with a multimeter but wasn't clear what to test for. Unfortunately the only wire available with any power to it is the one for the rear washer (green and black). This works when the washer switch is activated and from the looks of the wiring diagram this wiring is correct. As it stands this is how I've wired the relay for the heated screen in the boot .. following your notes ... by process of elimination. W1 - Black & White (from the switch) W2 - Black (I'm presuming the black wire is the earth) C1 - Black with the white collar near the crimp (live?) C2 - Black with an inline fuse (to the negative battery terminal) On the wiring diagram there are two relays for the heated rear screen though. Is the 'other one' needed to deliver power to the one in the boot? Do you have any ideas where it's located? There's a relay connected to the steering column. But the colours don't match .. and I can't find another one anywhere yet? The heated rear screen isn't all that important but it's good to work my way around where things live and overall it's becoming less daunting 😀 Best, Al

Ho hum. There's more to come. I'm just hoping to resolve the snags one at a time. Just on a general note I notice that the various dash warning light bulbs are available new ... do these fail? or blow? Maybe it's just the bulbs that don't work 🤣 Al

Hmmm. Painful. I'm going to leave this until I've sorted the relays out. At this rate I may have to buy another Elite just to see where all the wiring should go. Today I've been working my way around the car and both relays / connector blocks under the bonnet are fried. Could anyone tell me what they do? Both are Lucas 26RA 4 pin relays but it looks like the one on the left should be a 5 pin 30A relay ... is that correct? It looks like it should be but I can't see a 5 pin relay on my wiring diagram so can't work out what's not working that should be. Any ideas? Best, Al

Right. Back on the car today. After a bit of progress I've decided to keep it and see if I can get it MOT'd to drive over the summer (I've taken the advert down too). Putting the gearbox aside there are two or three small but irritating (!?) jobs to deal with. First up (to tidy up the boot area) is the 6R relay for the heated rear screen. This wasn't fully wired up and I'm having trouble figuring out 'how to'. Does anyone have a photo they could share? I can't read the lettering for the terminals on the Lotus wiring diagram (I've tried to zoom in) but have found a generic wiring diagram. Overall the colour of the wires I have available don't match up. So still stumped. These are the wires I have: - Black and white - Black with a grey tab near the crimp - Black with two connectors (connected by a black extension wire) When I took the relay off there was also an earth wire with an inline fuse connected (or one half of it at any rate). So there is potentially another wire. Which would be one for each terminal: - Dedicated earth with an inline fuse The photo on the right is how I inherited the car. Is this wiring correct and should I put the dedicated earth wire (and an inline fuse) on the centre (C2) terminal? If so where does the extra black connector go? What's that for? Best, Al P.S. I'm ignoring the green wire as I'm assuming this is for the rear washer.

I've decided not to put the wiper back to it's original park position (for the moment at least). Mainly as it doesn't appear to make any difference and the only reason it's catching on the rear window when you open it, is because the frame on the non standard wiper blade sits up too high. So the motor has gone back in. While in that corner I noticed there is also a spare red wire (bullet connector) on the back of both break lights. It's in the manual too but I can't see where it should live. There's no visible connector for it to attach to and it's the same on both sides of the car. Are these connectors for if you decide to fit a towing hitch 😉

Thanks Richard, Rob, The radio was working and now the clock is too! Dredging from memory the black earth also goes on the tab at the top of the console. Thanks for all the help. I'm getting into the swing of it and working my way around the manual. Best, Al. .... and this photo shows the back of the clock / light. Al

Thanks Rob, I've just dug the clock out but the light outside is going. More tomorrow. The good news (?) is that the earth is for a small connector so it can only go in a limited number of places (nowhere else on the clock). I've noticed now that the capacitor wire to one side has been cut too. Does anyone know where on the clock it should go? On the wiring diagram it just shows 'purple in' and 'black out' but that also leaves me with the centre terminal free. Any ideas? I think purple is in the correct place as that goes off to the glovebox light. Which is working. Best, Al.

One the back of the clock (the grey box bottom right) there is also a black earth wire with a three inch extension wire and a female terminal (the wire exiting to the top right of the photo) ... but not place to go. Does anyone have any suggestions where this should connect? In the same vicinity there are two switches that are activated by the two sliding heating controls (one on top of the other). They both click when the arms are pushed fully to the left [COLD & OFF] but don't appear to be doing anything. Are these hangovers from the air conditioning? Can I ignore these? Todays good news is that the cigar lighter works. I used to smoke so love the shroud you can extend to shield the tip of you cigar (?) from the wind. No need now though as the lighter smokes itself. Which is a bit worrying but maybe just needs a wire brush on the heater element? Best, Al

I've also been trying to do some weeding on the wires and now have everything inside the centre console accounted for. Except one rogue green wire. This exits the right hand side of the loom as you look at the front of the car and is in the same set of wires as the heater for the rear screen and the hazards. From what I can see there are no free tabs available. Does anyone have any ideas? Could it belong behind the dash instead? Best, Al