tristan reidford

Hey, a small update on this now the car is up in the air. See how the trailing arms are right up against that frame. My favorite theory now is that someone had these made. Although, if you are going to that much trouble why wouldn’t you make adjustable ones?

Thanks Pete, It’s definitely worth trying to get the most out of these shocks, before I try anything else. The alignment place said their was not enough adjustment in the current shocks, but I can’t see beyond the springs how much thread is available. hey Jeff thanks for taking those measurements, I’m encouraged that my car isn’t that far off yours. Maybe if I replace the radius bushings and correct the toe the geometry will pull the camber in a bit too as Peter suggests. It’s interesting to see the shimming of the intermediate shaft there. I will update this thread after I find the alignment report that I lost.

Thanks Pete, I should be able to figure out whether the brake disk adapter has been shortened. Maybe I should get some adjustable LCAs made (if that is a thing). My camber measuring is mebutting a set square up to the bottom of the tire, and measuring the distance to the top of the wheel rim. Not exact, but enough to establish the camber is the approximately the same on each side. my ride height (with nobody inside) is 5 inches from ground to the bottom of the crossmember. I think this is an inch lower than stock. My LCAs are both approximately 15.25 inches long. (Either total length or measured from each pivot point, I can’t remember).

Ah I see now, for some reason I thought the spade clip had been soldered to the base of the prong to somehow bypass it, but now I see what you mean that it has simply been stretched to fit over the prong and has fallen off because that’s a terrible solution. I found a fuse box in the glove box, is where the I will find the fan fuse, in case that’s an issue? I will run the tests you suggest when I get a chance. Thank you for bearing with me!

Thanks again Gavin, it’s still a bit confusing as my car seems to have an unexpected third spade connector that the black and yellow is connected too, leaving the blunt prong terminal unconnected. Unless they lost the correct terminal for that prong, and so wired in that spade connector instead. I can at least connect the two wires together like you suggest and see if the fans are running. Does the engine have to be running when I do this? When you say test the continuity, do you mean with a multimeter or something? Sorry I am very green when it comes to electrics (and everything else).

I think you are right Pete. The previous owner did track this car, (I found his YouTube). It’s a relief that nothing is ‘wrong’ with the setup apart from it can’t be aligned. I still don’t understand quite how lengthening the shocks would pull out the camber. I measured the distance from the floor to the wheel arch and it’s about 25 and a half inches. Is that really low?

Thanks for the info Gavin, super useful, I think I located the thermo switch (otter switch?) and it looks like it has been strapped onto the pipe like you described. Those two terminals don’t look like the otter switches I see when I look up the part, and the wiring doesn’t look super reliable. So if I bridge between those two terminals the fans will come on? (Assuming fuse is ok). I like the idea of adding the relays like you suggest. out of interest, if you are stuck in traffic for a while how far does your temp needle climb with the fans on? Also our cars are twins, is your factory yellow? My car was repainted and I’m not sure it whether it was a factory color or not but looks very similar to yours. Thanks!

I went to see the car today, I looked at the left rear side with a set square and measured and compared. The car is pretty much symmetrical, the left side has exact the same camber as the right. This probably means this camber was a choice a previous owner made. Seems unlikely it would be broken exactly the same on each side. So perhaps the garage was right and these shocks are not going to allow enough adjustment to raise the camber out of those wheels. I am having a hard time identifying these exact shocks, to see if they are too short.

It’s good to hear these cars will run just fine stock, the car is pretty OEM it would be cool to keep it that way. And thanks Chris, that makes a lot of sense, I think I’ve been avoiding looking too closely in case I find it’s all bad news. I opened the expansion tank cap and it looked like a nearly empty thermos of old tea in there. I will give it a flushing and check all the fans. thanks!

Also there is a different lower link for late S2 cars? I wonder what is the diff between the two?

That would certainly push the wheel upright, but doesn’t address what the real cause of this is, I’m still keen on getting to the bottom of that. Is it common practice to add another shim between the adapter and the u-joint? Has anyone ever seen this done on a car?

Are those the original fans and motors? my cooling situation is anxiety inducing. I knew going in that S1s had an issue with getting hot in traffic, but I think I can do better. Temp will climb 1/8 of an inch before the red on the gauge if I’m stuck in traffic. I don’t even know if the fans are working or not. I{be read through a couple of threads here about aluminum vs copper radiators and the various fan replacements. As for coolant filling, is it supposed to be an inch below filler cap in the vertical tank? And, is there a knack to getting the cap off? cheers!

Damn. Imagine how great it would be if that was the problem. Just pop in a new LCA and bingo! I'll talk to all the steves.

Thanks again for the recommendations, I am building a speculative shopping list. Since this car has been to an Esprit dealer here for an inspection, and been sent to an alignment place, I reckon they would have noticed bad bushing, especially if they were destroyed enough to cause such an extreme camber? Maybe not. Anyway I will check when I get some time so visit the car again. So now I am thinking some collision damage has happened. I do have some reason to suspect this, right before I bought the car, the dealer was taking it to a show in Miami, and when it came back it needed new mirrors. Vague car dealer details were given, and I was reassured that it was not a big deal, and they have installed replacement mirrors etc. I have yet to measure up the car, but I started thinking that if the lower control arm is the culprit, perhaps that is not centered. From what I can tell it looks like the rear brakes are all one rigid unit built around the gearbox. Since the rear suspension crossbeam is bolted directly to the caliper suspension brackets, which appear to be bolted directly onto the gearbox case with no adjustment, it seems unlikely. Another question, is it possible that the Lower control arm is somehow incorrect? For example say the LCAs of an S2 slightly is longer perhaps (!?), and one of these was mistakenly mounted to this car to replace a damaged LCA, and the camber issue ignored? Sounds implausible that someone would do that. I need to measure.

Thanks Rohan, I will give the u- shafts a good jostling and see if they move. I suspect that if that radius arm bushing is bad then they probably all are. To fix the radius arms, would this polybush kit be the thing? any recommendations on parts or bushing kits that are good and available would be welcome. https://www.pnmparts.co.uk/esprit/esprit-s1-s2-s2.2/lotus-esprit-radius-arm-mount-6000