Fast28

See here for my issues with the same slave rod: https://www.thelotusforums.com/forums/topic/117475-new-clutch-definitely-required/?do=findComment&comment=988960 I cut mine down to 100mm which should be the standard length using the Renault gearbox, using the 125mm rod was preloading the clutch springs causing slippage resulting in advanced wear on the flywheel and clutch pad I believe.

You're right! hardly ever see S4s Esprits come up for sale and suddenly two red ones appear within a week! 😁

Now on Pistonheads for £44,995 Red Esprit S4s

https://collectingcars.com/for-sale/1995-lotus-esprit-s4s

Success! 😁 After getting my head around the facts of how the clutch hydraulics operate I came to one conclusion as to why my new clutch setup was not disengaging and that was to bleed the slave cylinder again. I placed a ruler next to the clutch fork and recorded the movement on my phone while I operated the clutch pedal. The video confirmed my suspicions that I was not getting the full 18.5 to 19.5mm of slave travel. I think as I was now using the correct 100mm length push rod the slave piston was now required travel further (see explanation below) and the system needed more fluid between the master (noted correct Girling G70 unit fitted) and slave to provide that movement. I think my original setup had an extra long push rod that must have bottomed out the piston inside the slave cylinder and was preloading the fork hence a friction plate that never fully engaged on the flywheel and was constantly slipping to some degree creating the extra wear and short life of the last clutch. With no preload on the clutch fork using the proper 100mm push rod, the slave piston had to move further than before to provide anything near the previous amount of disengagement. As to why an extra long pushrod was used? maybe the mechanic just couldn't bleed all the air out and resorted to other means to get a customers car appear to work? So I got out the trusty vacuum bleeder - the best tool ever for bleeding the slave, simple, easy, does the job in minutes and no need to remove the slave. I tried pressure bleeding the system once before but the fluid just leaked out under the master cylinder cap and made a mess. After a few beakers of fluid were pulled through, the clutch pedal was firm throughout it's entire travel. Started the engine and success! I could select all forward gears, if a little notchy. Reverse I had to be gentle with and nurse into position. I made a few small adjustments to the gear selector and translator rod ends as I had changed them for new ones as part of the overhaul and all was good again, reverse still a bit of an issue. Took the car for a 10 mile test drive, filled up with fuel and drove back, clutch worked, didn't miss a gear, biting point now closer to the floor requiring me to relearn getting the car moving off in first but soon got used to it. Car still has the original red clutch hose so something I might look into upgrading soon, never was a problem before but might help to maintain good disengagement to get into reverse more easily after the car has warmed up 🤔.

Ooh, found out @Cushingwho had the same pushrod as me.. https://www.thelotusforums.com/forums/topic/87708-clutch-pedal-adjustment/ The clutch disengaged fully with this pushrod when the clutch was slipping but soon as I cut it down to spec at 100mm and tried it before and after changing the clutch - no disengagement. BTW I can push the slave piston back by just pushing on the pushrod, is that right?

Hi Eric, I think it depends on your browser permissions. You can try and download the linked file, that seems to work for viewing on phones. The clutch fork arm looks straight and original, in fact I removed all the surface rust, inspected it and painted it to help protect it before refitting.

Well after one hot weekend the new clutch is in! 🥵 Re-ground flywheel and new pilot bearing as well as new rear main seal with gasket and sealant. Working out how to get the axle spiders back into the yokes was an interesting battle as I remembered I had disconnected them with the gearbox released from the engine before but with the engine now bolted up it was much harder. Worked out the best way was to jack the rear of the car up, pull the wheels out as far as I could and chock them up with plywood boards, then lower the car gradually and the wheels slide out further as the plywood slides across the floor which gives enough clearance for the axles to be re-assembled. Jack back up and the spiders fit back into the yokes. Just to be absolutely sure about the release bearing sitting correctly on the clutch fork I used a cheap eBay endoscope to peer inside the gearbox and satisfied that it was bolted the rest of the parts back in place. Used my 100mm cut down slave pushrod but I cannot select any gears 😦, the clutch does not want to disengage with such as short pushrod (previous workshop had fitted a 128mm pushrod but it was preloading the clutch as it was firmly held between the abutment screw and slave which probably caused the premature clutch wear. I've checked the clutch pedal position which is spot on between 175-180mm, I've got 12.5mm on the abutment screw, no leaks and the clutch pedal after a few pumps feels infinitely better (lighter). Either I need to bleed the hydraulics more or use a longer pushrod? Here's a video clip of the push rod in action, can someone confirm I have enough travel? S4s slave push rod I found an interesting thread back in 2011: https://www.thelotusforums.com/forums/topic/42610-anyone-ever-had-their-flywheel-machined/#comment-360469 where lotus4s had said he had seen cases where for no reason he had to use longer pushrods on 2 cars, maybe the reason mine was fitted with a longer pushrod?

Hi Erik, before I started to take parts off I reduced the slave push rod length to 100mm to see what difference it made as both clutch pedal and the push rod abutment screw were set correctly to the Esprit service notes. As it happened with a 100mm push rod I could no longer select any gear, I believe if I had the correct release bearing fitted which would have given me the extra clutch disengagement I maybe would have been able to select gears and even use the clutch again.

After experiencing a slipping clutch in the S4s a few weeks back it's been hard graft at weekends getting the gearbox off and getting the necessary parts ordered. Luckily during my prior recommissioning of the car I had already addressed the need for quick removal of the boot floor by removing the previous repairs done by garages who had obviously come up against seized bolts in rusty rivnuts in the past by replacing them all with labour intensive locknuts, bolts and washers. I installed jack nuts and stainless bolts so everything came apart easily. I took the opportunity to replace the gearshift cable ball joints and those on the translator arm, removed the exhaust, good opportunity to replace the left exhaust rubber mount which was some lash-up using a universal rubber isolator. The three bolts holding the bypass valve to the down pipe where cut off and bypass valve removed with the intention to replace it with PNM's spacer; the rest of system having previously been removed so it was really the last piece to go. Unfortunately removing the downpipe revealed that the cat was rattling badly and probably most of the cat fell out in distorted lumps. The engine had obviously had a fuel injection problem in the past and ended up melting the cat 😦. Took the exhaust mounting frame off and gave it a good clean up and repainted it with high temp paint. Disconnected the lower suspension link arms, pulled back the inner CV boots and was greeted with 27 year old liquefied CV grease 😝. Jacked the car up, grabbed each wheel and pulled it outwards releasing the driveshaft spider out of the yoke assemblies as recommended here on the forums 👍. Got the gearbox mounts unbolted, bell housing bolts off and shuffled the gearbox back, it needed a bit of persuasion with a pry bar but once moving it came away okay. I wasn't really satisfied with having the gearbox hanging around so I ended slipping it out under the back of the car. On removing the gearbox, the clutch fork was no longer held to the pivot point as the rivet holding the spring retainer had long since disappeared. The release bearing was the wrong one, it was for an S4 not an S4s although an S4s clutch was fitted. Also the slave cylinder push rod had in the past been replaced with a 128mm long item in place of the stock 100mm rod, probably to counteract the shorter S4 release bearing! The friction disk was worn down to 6.0mm (notes say 5.9mm useful life) and due to slipping the flywheel had taken a beating also, all this in under 11k miles as it was replaced the first time back in 2007. I had to replace the crank sensor as that had got hot from the clutch and expended into the mounting hole necessitating in brute force to extract it and unfortunately breaking the top off, found a replacement Bremi 60391 which is a cross-referenced part for the orignal GM part number at less than half the price. Upon removing the flywheel I noticed oil on the back of the flywheel and was eventually greeted by this... So clutch parts list so far consists of the following: - PNM's S4s clutch kit S4s release bearing housing complete. clutch fork spring Rear main seal rear main seal panel gasket Spiggot bearing resurfaced flywheel Oh and just for good measure one of the above button head socket bolts rounded out, these were held incredibly tightly by Loktite so that looks like next weekends task while I wait for the flywheel to be resurfaced. Found a fairly local machine shop that seem to know their stuff and knew a few things about the Renault gearbox, link below. https://www.kmbengltd.com/

Well make this the second S4s with a S4 release bearing fitted and done so by a professional sports car specialist! 🙄 Over the past 6 months I've been bringing an S4s up to a decent standard after it's been doing not a lot for the past 13 years so basically a recommissioning project. A few weeks ago it came to the first test drive, all goes well, in fact better than expected and end up completing 20 miles, car seems to run great, maybe a bit low on boost pressure but no leaks, mind you I have absolutely no experience of Esprits so have no baseline to base my experience on but I know enough to know when something isn't right. Go for second run, 35 miles, max open throttle, notice revs spin up fast then traction seems to catch up, max boost still not quite there yet. Very slight smell of clutch after car is shut down in the garage. Go for third run the next day, notice when boost kicks in the revs shoot up but with no extra forward acceleration, a mile before I reach my Father's house and the clutch has given out, now slipping in all gears when the boost comes on. Limp the car onto the driveway and instantly know the car's going nowhere. Call a friend out to help me push the car into the garage as now it will not start because (not known at the time) the spade terminal on the starter motor solenoid 12v wire has corroded and broke off, at the time we both blamed it on 90's car immobilisers; in the car history the original Lotus system had died and been replaced by a Clifford alarm/immobiliser. Car history: - Clutch assembly and release bearing replaced by specialist in 2006 @ 32k miles. Clutch slave cylinder replaced by specialist in 2009. Clutch slave cylinder replaced by myself this year due to leaking seals and corrosion, new Land Rover 2a slave fitted with complete flush and bleed. After bleeding I notice the clutch pedal is incredibly heavy but gear changes are very good and goes into reverse no bother at all (it previously crunched with the old leaky slave and fluid). Roll on to yesterday and I'm interested to know if the slave cylinder I fitted has a 100mm push rod or not because I know the clutch pedal and the abutment screw are to the workshop manual's dimensions. Measured the push rod and it was 128mm long and it was exerting pressure onto the clutch fork, I thought I might be onto something so cut it down to 100mm and filed a bullnose end and refitted. Clutch pedal was much lighter but I couldn't select any gears, clutch now not disengaging at all! So that afternoon I take the gearbox off which was an experience in itself. Things worth a comment were that the clutch fork spring had detached from the fork (standard?). The friction plate was just a fraction of millimetre over 6mm in thickness (5.9mm useful life limit I read?) but also after taking the release bearing assembly home to press in the new bearing I noticed I too had a S4 bearing, it's a one piece bearing identical to the pictures at the start of this topic, unfortunately all the numbers have corrosion over them so are unreadable. Now I wonder if the reduced height of using a S4 bearing was somehow being compensated with a longer slave push rod. Using the cut down 100mm push rod I did notice the clutch fork rattled and felt loose. Maybe this combination contributed to a rather short 11k mile life of the clutch? 🤨

Ha, funny you should mention, ABS light was on when I bought it and I feared the worst! A scan with Espritmon identified no pressure it the accumulator and every press of the brake pedal switched on the pump. New Wabco accumulator fitted and it's back to 7 brake pedal pushes before the pump turns on and ABS light is out. In the past it's had a new pressure switch fitted and I've given the system a good flush with fresh Dot 4 and bled the system in accordance with the factory manual. I've tested it out with a few emergency stops and so far it's behaving itself...time will tell!

Thanks Barry🙂, the clutch was replaced 10k miles ago by a sports car specialist in Essex but that was around 2007 so who knows what state it's in! I also had to replace the slave cylinder as that was rusty and leaking and near impossible to select reverse gear without crunching, shifts gears just great now it's been replaced but there seems to be a lot of pre-loading on the clutch fork which needs further investigation. Took the exhaust off ready to remove the gearbox and most of the cat fell out of the downpipe 🤔 some of the chunks were must have got extremely hot at some point as they were melted. I'll have to start a retrospective project thread as a lot of the car's faults have been solved now with thanks to these forums' wealth of info! Hi Ian, In the log book, there's a hand written note 'sand' interior which seems correct as it was an official Lotus interior colour and does seem to line up with the light beige leather, the seats also have green piping. One of the POs had also fitted an after market flat bottomed steering wheel and other alterations to suit the driver. Thanks Tom🙂, I've read you project thread and others, extremely useful! 😃 The Futuras are the originals that came with the car, in the car's history file there is a receipt for a set of new AWI V8 wheels that were later fitted, not sure why, probably because the Futuras became corroded and difficult to maintain, they've got tyres on from 2007 😲 shame I will have to bin them as they where Michelin pilot sports with loads of tread!

Hi, I'm a big fan of the Lotus Esprit and finally bought one...a '96 S4s in Lotus Racing Green! 😀 Well that was back in November 2021 and in these past 6 months I've been recommissioning it and now it's back on the road.... ...albeit briefly, everything worked great for about 60 miles until the clutch started slipping badly. Oh well, I'll be making a post in the appropriate technical forum soon then. Photo as I bought it...BTW the horrid rim protectors are long gone and I also have the original OZ Futura undergoing a refurbishment.