Jason Rushing

This will be included in my eventual engine rebuild but I have a question. Did you have the heads and engine block machined a little to ensure flatness? If so would taller cylinder liners still be called for? I understand that does depend on how much material is removed but in general what are the thoughts on this or is that a must get block back from machinist to know for certain what liners to order? Mike I know you have posted elsewhere the part number another Esprit owner had used from Westwood so I'm curious if that is what @Thartje used and if not could @Thartje post the part number for the liner he ordered from Westwood? Much appreciated!

I had PT Turbo in California rebuild mine and they are basically T28 hybrids now with billet compressors, oversized turbine, and the 360 bearings, plus I asked them to do the ceramic coating to the turbine housing. They had to machine the turbine housing to accommodate the new turbines, mine had some damage and the T25 turbine is not available from what was explained to me and what they installed is used on some T28's so that is why I use the term a T28 hybrid now but all in the original housings. I haven't had the car out for a test drive yet but that should come soon! Last photo is what the old compressor wheel looks like for some comparison.

Well, since I have the 25th Anniversary #006 this is really going to trigger the purists so firstly just know that, to quote an older than our Esprit's movie, "Frankly my dear I don't give a damn", secondly to those that appreciate a nice mod/upgrade, I think you're gonna like it. My recently acquired, March 2023, 2002 25th Anniversary #006, has 70K on the odometer and is obviously a drivers car, not a garage queen/collectors car. Therefore when I purchased this beauty she had a golf ball size hole in the drivers side seat bolster. I wanted to have the seat re-upholstered but was thinking I might as well make it a little more modern/classy than the original classic. The result is I asked them to add a double stitching to replace the original piping and also to do a double stitched diamond pattern on the seats. I also had the parking brake and seat belt redone with red stitching and the shift boot done with red double stitching. The 25th Anniversary has the Lotus symbol embossed in the headrest so I had them do that as well, the passengers seat is perfect while I would like to have the drivers seat better, as their first embossing job I can accept it. I will probably get them to rework the drivers seat embossing but since I haven't driven the car in a month due to having the seats out I accepted the work. So far I'm really happy with how it turned out and modernized the card a bit. Just food for thought if anyone else is looking to get their seats re-done.

No the plastic switches are a friction fit, they just push onto the stem.

I got all of my switches in today, painted up the new mount and temp installed the new switches. I couldn't resist plugging the new blank replacement that I had them make with the Lotus symbol on it to a 9 Volt battery just to see how it will look and I can honestly say I love it. It will not control anything since my car is a US spec with no rear fog lights but it will be lit up in the car and look much cooled than just the factory plastic blank insert we US spec owners currently have. Next it to start the wiring process which will take me some time since I'm going out of town for a week and have to go over my drawings and the wiring diagrams again. I will get it all temporarily wired in to make sure it all works then start a new thread with how I did it. More to follow....

So I'm going to be replacing all of the 5 upper light switches, ok so actually 4 real switches on a US spec car since we don't have rear fog lights here but that ugly blank is getting replaced as well. I've ordered a switch with the Lotus emblem for that blank switch that will have a backlight instead of just the dead blank switch, but it will not control anything on my US car. Given the near impossibility of sourcing factory replacement switches, and even then they are just more cheap plastic that will not last. Since I got this car a few short months ago I've been researching and trying to find the best way to go about this and have settled on the round 'halo' or 'billet' aluminum switches whatever you want to call them. I've sorted out the wiring around 90% and will probably create a new thread to discuss that once I get that done but for now I'm going to start with just how to mount the little suckers. Because, if you know, they are round switch push buttons but actually square bodies where they mount into the switch mount frame. How French, or British, to put a round peg in a square hole....lol Due to this round peg/square hole dilemma I could not come up with any way to mount the new round switches in the factory square hole mount frame so I had to come up with something from scratch. I purchased some aluminum angle bar from a hardware store, in the end had to add an additional piece to the bottom which didn't bother me since it gave me more material to tap into when tapping the screw holes for bolting it to the car. I went to a machinist and had him fabricate some small tubes that are internally threaded on one end to accept the new switches and externally threaded on the other to screw into the mount frame. The biggest challenge so far is getting the holes drilled as centered as possible but luckily there is some left/right for/aft play in the mounts holes in the car so it is a little forgiving. What follows is my first attempt, which I can live with but think I can get a little more precise. Also, I will go back to my machinist, now that he knows what I need and how to make the pieces, and probably shorten the front internally threaded end by 1/8" and the aft externally threaded end by 1/4" to save a little room behind and give a little more adjust-ability of the depth of the switches in the front. I need to paint the new mount frame black so it blends in better but today was just a test fit and not the final product. I'm curious in knowing how many others would be interested in this. If it is something that others are interested in I can get the machinist to make some more switch mount tubes and I can make the mount frames for them. As is without the switches, just the mount for new round 'halo'/'billet' aluminum switches it would probably run between $175-200 US before shipping.

I don't follow, what did we do opposite and what do you mean swapped the knobs? Did you unscrew the switches and rotate them 180 degrees so that the flat spot on the switch matched up with the location of the set screw on the new knobs? I just though about that as a solution instead of drilling and tapping a new hole on the opposite side of the knob for the set screw.

I purchased some pretty aluminum switch knobs from PNM to replace my cheap plastic switches for the entire AC panel, 4 of them in all. All was going well until I attempted to remove the far right AC switch knob. Well, when I say going well I realized the set screw was tapped on the opposite side of the flat spot on the OEM switches, so I did decide to drill and tap a new set screw hole on the side of the new switch knob that faced the flat side of the actual switch. When I tried to remove the AC switch knob I had to use quite a bit of force to pull it off and when it decide to come off the potentionmeter and ON/OFF switch for the AC compressor decided to self destruct. The AC Switch potentionmeter/adjustable resistor/rheostat, whatever you want to call it is no longer supported by Lotus, as if that comes as any surprise to any Esprit owner. SJS does have an AC Switch but they want $80.51 and looking at their picture it requires some slight modification to install. The stock OEM AC switch is actually soldered in and does not have a plug type connector, the SJS has a plug type connector and appears to come with the necessary plugs to adapt it to the car. So the potentionmeter is marked with B5K Ohm and has an integrated ON/Off or SPST switch. I found this potentionmeter on Ebay for the high price of $1.44, yes that is less than $2 US each, so I purchased 3 at $1.37 each plus shipping. I got 3 in for less than $10 US. The first thing is that you will notice the physical size of the ones from Ebay are almost twice as big as the OEM switch, though it does fit in the OEM hole with one minor adjustment needed. I used a 9/64 drill bit to drill a new hole for the little set stud to fit in to keep it from rotating. The other noticeable difference is the switch stud for mounting the knob. Due to the larger size once I had the new AC Switch soldered in I wrapped it with some electrical tape to avoid any potential contact, and shorts, with the mounting frame. I started the car and the new switch worked as new. I have no idea why the Lotus engineers designed the car with an AC computer that doesn't just turn the AC compressor clutch on with a simple ON/OFF signal like every other car on the planet. Since the AC clutch only turns on at full 5K resistance on the potentionmeter, (what the heck is the use of the potentionmeter???), I don't see why we couldn't just wire in a 5K ohm resistor in the circuit, remove the potentiometer, and just use a good old fashioned ON/OFF switch like every other car on the planet... In the end, if you are not afraid to use a soldering iron and a drill, you can replace the AC switch for less than $10 US if you ever have the need. I have no idea how to source the smaller OEM, possibly micro potenionmeter, but these slightly larger ones that do the trick and can be had cheap.

I'm going to start a completely new thread once I come to a final solution on this, expect a few more weeks since I'm out of town a it for the rest of this month. I will do a complete write up on all my parts, wiring diagrams, what I had to improvise and so forth. At the moment I think I have it all mostly worked out with the exception of mounting these new billet/halo push button switches. Right now I may have to go to a machinist to have some mounts fabricated and may just have a dozen or so made so that I can provide (sell) them to anyone interested in this or just let them know what all I've done.

Gotcha, yeah I'm working the improvisation because I just don't see these original switches being a long term solution and at some point it will be impossible to find one, it almost already is. I can live without the soft backlighing but still just working on the wiring of the new switches and a relay or two is a challenge.

I'm sure my desire to try and keep it working as factory is causing me to over think it, but I'm not sure it is a simple as just using an on off switch for the headlights. When the ignition is switched on there is a signal sent through the headlight master switch to the headlight pod relay that keeps them closed when the switch is off and when the master is pressed in (headlights on) it removes that signal and sends a signal to a different part of the relay.

I went for a longer drive and while at the upholster shop for around 20 minutes the car was once again being hesitant to start. The cranking speed was like normal each time so at least that seems to be solved but the start after a longer sit is not completely sorted. Time to start working on the rest of the list of possible solutions...

Yeah, I've been studying the crap out of these wiring schematics and just plain old working the multimeter on the switch to fully understand how these work. I've basically worked out how I can make these latching billet push button switches work as a master and a side lamp switch using some relays and a diode. The only part I've yet to work out is the soft illumination with the ignition on (I know use a resistor, just not sure where in the circuit) and the strong illumination with the switch on. I can get strong illumination with the switch on I think with no problem and have the master and side lamp switches work the way factory does minus the soft illumination. I know I can get it sorted, would be easier with some help from someone strong in electronics which surely there is someone on here. Once I get this mostly sorted I will make a post and get feedback from the group.

Nope, I did that search and it seems Lotus is the only one that uses these for master and side lamps. Apparently Peugeot only uses the round style for fog, defrost, and hazard. And just gives you the idea that I'm 'a proper gentleman" 🤣

That's why I bought 5 other used switches to see if that would be a solution. I tried to disassemble one of them and was unsuccessful without damaging it.