Angus553

Yikes not good news if the engine is seized. All the other issues will be secondary to that!!

Hi Tony glad to see ur back. I would carry on for now. The more its complete the greater the satisfaction and ofcourse the value. Whats to do still?

A red eclat S1 appeared in an episode of The return of the Saint circa 1978, driven by Carolyn Seymour.(on tv in the last week.)

Tony AKA Doris the Dog purchased an elite windscreen from lotusbits last year. He had it fitted by autowindscreens and he said it was a good job and fitted well. Angus

Nice one Tony!! Where will your lotus and parts lotus live??

Hi Joe Have just seen this. My Elite is a H&O Garages Ltd car with the original reg plates still. Would be interested in any information you may have. Thanks Angus

Hi Guys, thanks for the input. Probably shouldve mentioned that on level ground the amount was still around 900ml. Managed to get another 50/60 ml in through the filler and refitted the plug. A bit happier now its at around 90% full.

Hi According to my workshop manual the fluid amount should be at 1.14 litres,but with the back of the car jacked up with the rear wheels 6 inches off the ground its only possible to get around 900 ml of ep90 into the dif before the fluid starts running out of the filler plug hole. Any suggestions or do i just need to jack it up higher?? Thanks Angus

Hi Gasket is leaking slightly between the two, is it possible to undo the bolts and run a bead of rtv sealant around the join and stop the leak or is it a gearbox and engine out job??!!(hopefully not for such a small job ) Thanks Angus

That is a shame. How close are you to getting it useable? Persevere if you can though.

H.Bowers (as do others on Ebay)do versions of the rear wiper blade/arm which fits to the main arm. Angus

Thanks JW some really good info on the videos.

Well it seems the 'cold steel' ala Cpl Jones has done the trick. Used the cold chisel and moved it round about 1 cm so wont touch it anymore until the LR 608246 diff plugs arrive. Thanks Pete, gave it a bit more welly this time and it moved, before obviously didnt whack it hard enough as didnt want to damage the plug incase it didnt budge and only started leaking instead.

Hi Pete yes maybe give it another go with the cold chisel. Its really too rounded off now for any kind of socket!! Reverse fitted a 1/2 inch socket and used an allen key on a 10mm spanner and a bar, and all I did was put a 30 deg bend in my spanner LOL!! Didnt realise they were tapered that would explain it.

The diff is on the car and fully operational. Correct level/fluid and the filler plug can easily be removed as and when(thanks JW.) Guessing its been cross threaded at some point as its out about 4 threads where as the filler is only out about 2 threads. It has been tried before to get it out and ive had several goes now and its well rounded off.

Hi Peter/Dave Just checking the 608246 and or TYB500120 LR part is the correct part and will fit the 501 diff, fill and drain plugs? Having trouble getting the drain plug out. Only option left is to heat it up or weld a socket onto it. Thanks Angus

Hi Drawfiler yes have checked all your suggestions as replaced o rings and the pump diaphragm(what a pain to get the spring to sit properly) the carbs are balanced and set to 3.5 full turns. After the last set up they were set at just over 4 turns and reading around 4 on the synchronometer. It seems the new electronic ignition had an intermittent fault as couldnt think of anything else. Swapped over 20+ plugs 3 dizzy caps 4 rotor arms and trigger wheels 2 ht lead sets and 2 coils and still got the same problem even with spark via cranking. New dizzy cap didnt help until the new electronic ignition arrived via a phone call to accuspark who were happy to replace it as was only 2 months old. Everything thus far seems to work with all the combinations just about and the position of the rotor arm and trigger wheel seem to be less critical now. the ignition switch and erretic rpm gauge also now seem to be ok again. Just need to retune the carbs as played with them but do work ok anyway.

Hi benco in order to get to the fan atleast some of the dash needs to be removed.(or drop the steering column) For me it be accessed through the rpm gap by having 1 hand through this gap and the other coming up from underneath in order to connect the cables. From my pic you can see the fan(black and yellow with the 3 wires just out of shot behind the speedo. 2 live wires low and high speed and 1 earth. Both fans are connected to two relays in the footwell. Its possible to turn the blades by removing the cover from the left fan and poking something between the two.

Hi excel v8 thanks for the idea. Havent tried this yet. Will do this week. (Other jobs have had to take priority, some lotus and some not) Hi drawfiler thanks for this. After a closer inspection of the centre spring, it doesnt work as good as it should so has been replaced with a brand new one and now getting a good spark with the rotor arm fully on. So now back to the erratic rpm problem.....there's always something.

Have had an eventful few days.....firstly thanks to Excel v8 for his advice about taking out the rev counter to check the connections and run a direct link from the battery to the rev counter to try and isolate the erratic rpm. Its still on the to do list but with the dash more accessi le have reconnected the vac pipes previously knocked off whilst fixing the panel light rheostat. Accessed the right side fan and connected previously undiscovered wires and now both fans work properly having previously fixed the left side fan and changed both of the relays. Also now the brakes/pdwv light works as does the low fuel light after plenty of hours of frustration. So all good so far and now everything electrical works except the rear wiper which works on the bench after making up some springs and brushes,just need new switch wormdrive and tube. Dare I connect up a live feed to the rev counter after everything has gone so well so far!!

Hi Pete On my rev counter their is 2 green connections at the back both on the 1 terminal block and a black which has a good earth and also a white one. Can both be disconnected and a direct wire connected to the green terminal? would the extra wire need to have a fuse? also can you (or anyone else) tell me where the voltage stabiliser is as I cant find it as want to check the connections on it. Is it best to do this from in front or below in the lotus position? From 2 other forums a fix was to change the ignition switch for a new one and also apparently there is a counter weight on the rev counter dial needle which can move and distort the tacho readings (eg gauge out and refit it correctly). Any thoughts. TIA Angus

Although the sparking issue is solved with the replacement electronic ignition and now getting lots of spark with a very exact placement of the rotor arm and trigger wheel. Have to place the rotor arm on fully and pull it back about 0.5mm to get a good spark. 1mm equals a poor spark and fully on equals no spark. This has been the case since owning the car!! However a new problem has evolved since doing this and replacing a few carb parts as the carb was on the bench to afford better access to the distributor. Now it starts and runs q nicely but if you rev it up over 2500rpm the rev counter goes a bit haywire and fluctuates between 500 to 5000 rpm temporarily. The actual rpm doesn't follow the rev counter with erratic rpm(maybe a little but not a lot and with no rev counter may not notice at all??) Have checked the connections and earths and all appears to be good via the multimeter. Currently the trumpets and air box are off the car to have gained good access to the distributor so sounds a bit different to the usual. Thinking of getting a new ignition switch but obviously this problem is v annoying and does anyone have any suggestions?? Thanks Angus

Thanks for all your help. Eventually came down to the inevitable conclusion it was an intermittently faulty electronic ignition. Swapped it over and hey presto ...lots of spark again. Had to remove the carbs this time to get access so have ordered a few parts whilst its off the car to give it the once over until next time.

Hi Tony the manual says 0.58mm for plug gap for the original points type set up. If you have electronic ignition you can set the plugs to 0.8/0.9 mm gap as per the excel and the generally accepted gap for the electronic set up. Have tried it on my accuspark electronic ignition and you get a fatter spark apparently!! For plugs ive used several different plugs. Ngk 6bpes is the recommended plug and probably the best one and is my go to plug. Have also used 7bpes and 5bpes, also bosch wr6dc and accuspark ac9c plugs along with sparkrite plug testers. For easier starting you could try 5bpes as it runs hotter but does start to glaze if used too much.

2 1/2 turns maybe a little lean especially if they are 1/2 turns. Everything ive read indicates 3 1/2 turns out for initial set up. Also 3.5 turns is 7x 1/2 turns and mine is currently set at 8x 1/2 turns which is a little rich but works ok. How good is the spark? Decent spark all the time? As previously mentioned check static timing. My starting technique is ignition on several clicks of the fuel pump(about 10 from cold) full choke and 3 pumps of the accelerator and turn key with 3/4 throttle and it usually fires up.