1979 Yellow Lotus Eclat: My project thread

[soldave]

Looks like mystery may be solved. That clanging coming from the diff area... outer UJ had gone. Three ends looked good, the other had no grease in. Am assuming linked to the bearing failure. Took all circlips off the UJs but ended up just replacing the outer UJ and replacing the clips on the inner one.

To tell the truth, I'm so nervous now about whether the circlips are in the UJs securely. It all looks good but it did with the wheel bearing and I just don't trust myself! Might have to do some very gentle drives then come back and check them to build up my confidence. Or I just take the shaft to my local garage and ask them to sense check it for me.

 

[soldave]

The Eclat continues to hurt my simple brain. New wheel bearing, new hub carrier, new inner and outer UJs fitted and all torqued up to spec. Initial drive is short and I might be able to hear a noise on rotation, but then again I may just be imagining it.

 

Get home and jack the car back up to make sure everything is still tight and there's 12 o'clock movement when I push the wheel in towards the diff. Rotate the wheel 90 degrees and there's no movement anywhere, rotate another 90 degrees and it's back. put a jack under the hub carrier to simulate drive height - no movement ("obviously", some might say) Checked everything is torqued, including going as far as the inner driveshafts to driveshaft assembly, and all good.

 

I really don't want to believe another wheel bearing has failed on me :if it has the car may have to stay on jackstands for a while as I've just been throwing money at it recently and my wife will start to ask questions about why we're only eating rice and drinking water each day!

 

[soldave]

Had to take a hiatus after a couple of rear wheel bearing failures as I was burning through money and also running low on enthusiasm after my own mistake on a circlip killed the first one, then the second was dead on arrival, and then it turned out the other side needed doing too. But a couple of weeks ago I finally got a pair of new rear wheel bearings, got them fitted and there is now zero movement and noise coming from the back. Took the car out on a cold and wet day today and it drove perfectly (after taking it to the redline once to give it that "Italian tuning" which got rid of a tiny misfire!). Thanks to all who provided support on this one.

I got the two old bearings out in one piece so will do a little bit of testing on them both once I have some more time, especially the one that was DOA. It was a Lotusbits bearing they pre-fitted to the hub carrier before sending out so was a shame it was dead from the start.

[Trunnion 74]

Really pleased you finally got it sorted Dave.  Well done  👍 

[soldave]

Lots of driving the cars in recent times and making up for lost time whilst it was off the road. Always thinking about the next thing for it though.o

Took it o a coachtrimmers this morning to get a quote for the headlining fixing. He confirmed it had delaminated so would need replacing, and as some may know, that colour of cloth is not available any more. Disappointing as replacing it would mean that it doesn't match the rest, but it does need doing at some point. Waiting for a quote now - a reasonably close match would be a wool blend that's used in some Jags.

I also talked about getting the seat redone but he said the foam felt pretty good and he'd suggest saving my money for.now unless I wanted it being absolutely perfect.

[soldave]

Right, quite has come in. I don't have any experience with quotes for this kind of work so just wanted to check with you guys that it sounded appropriate.

I've been quoted £1,400 for it doing, with the following disclaimer:

" Due to the way the head liner is fit and the delamination we have to strip the car that’s front seat out rear seats out then any trims from the door glass upwards out. Whilst every car will be taken with the car due to the age any plastic parts become brittle and may break also due to the delamination under the headliner the delaminated foam is extremely stick again every care will be taken but this may get on the trim and is difficult to remove hence taking the seas out before we start"

Does all that seem to read alright to anyone who's had this internal trim work done before? Will probably try to get another quote before I decide anything.

[madmax]

For what it's worth Dave, that sounds particularly costly for a headlining retrim. I did my Elite with some excellent trim fabric and some high strength impact adhesive for about eighty quid.

It's not the easiest job but a good sunny bank holiday weekend should see it sorted.

Someone on here recently has also done something I was thinking about and that is to trim two separate panel inserts for the front and rear roof areas with the fabric of choice, then these are then simply offered up to the roof and either gently stuck or held in place with the cant rail trims and roll over hoop trim. You'll need to source a suitable backing board but there are numerous options these days.

Removing the old fabric is messy as the old foam scrim will have turned to powder now and a good vacuum is required and it's advisable to lay down those fine plastic decorating covers over the seats, but I didn't remove mine.

I used a very Italianate looking and luxurious suede type trim fabric from MARTRIM in the Midlands - not genuine I grant you but a really great fabric and almost spot on colour wise 👍👍

Good luck1

[Tony D]

That's way over priced. 

As previous post, there are only a few pounds worth of material, the rest is labour. Excels are virtually identical and I don't recall anyone paying more than a few hundred.

Tony

[Trunnion 74]

I'm with the guys above Dave.  Sounds really pricey, almost as if they don't want your business.  I'm sure you can find someone who will do it for a more reasonable price.

[soldave]

Yeah... I do wonder that. I've contacted Lotusbits and they have the material. Am going to call them tomorrow to just have a chat about what would be involved in me doing the work myself. Most likely, I've found a trimmer in Leeds who should be able to do the job.

[Tony D]

It's not that difficult a job. Give it a go yourself. What's the worst that could happen - you loose the cost of the materials and a weekends work. 

Lots of advise from those that have already done it on various forums.

Tony

[soldave]

Did a fluid check over the weekend and noticed my power steering needed a top up. Did that but then dropped under the car this evening and noticed that both boots/gaitors on the rack seemed to have some fluid in. Pushed one of them and heard a bit of liquid, and also felt it on the other side. Ditto on the opposite side.

Now I'm guessing that seals have gone on the rack, which is a huge disappointment as the rack was rebuilt under 2 years ago and has probably covered less than 500 miles since (although I have been out on plenty of short trips - my 14-month old son has put pay to more longer trips). But it's bizarre to think that seals have gone on both sides all in that short time period.

I couldn't see any leaks from the hoses above, but I only looked for a minute or so, so may have a closer look tomorrow.

If I got something like this (https://www.sjsportscars.com/parts-and-accessories/A075H6023F.htm) and the leak was coming from those seals, would that most likely fix it? Also, is it possible to do the rack work at the ends with it in place - I just remember what an absolute pain it was getting the rack out last time in my garage!

Finally, I may try something like the Lucas Oil Power Steering Stop Leak oil. It's leaking now already so the worst it could do is make the seals fail completely and need replacing. Which they probably do already! Plus, if it did work, it would mean I could still get to the Classic Team Lotus Garden Party the weekend after next - I was just about to buy tickets for it tonight

 

[TAR]

I've heard anecdotal evidence that the power steering rack on the Eclat and Elite was prone to blowing the seals if the steering was turned whilst stationary. An associate of mine replaced his with a manual rack as is blew several sets of seals. This may be an issue specific to him though. I'm sure others may chip in.  

[soldave]

5 minutes ago, TAR said:

I've heard anecdotal evidence that the power steering rack on the Eclat and Elite was prone to blowing the seals if the steering was turned whilst stationary. An associate of mine replaced his with a manual rack as is blew several sets of seals. This may be an issue specific to him though. I'm sure others may chip in.  

Thanks for the thoughts. I know the service manual says you need to be very careful turning the wheel when the engine is off. I thought I had been but maybe not careful enough!

[Dunc]

its a far nicer drive without power steering. Its heavy at parking speeds, granted, but on the move its perfection.

i hadnt driven a power steering wedge until I bought that excel, and I didnt really like it at all. The power steering on my v8 was deleted due to pump clearance, and I'd always had a hankering after re-instating it as I have the bits and would use a remote saxo/ax electric pump mounted remotely, but after trying it, I'm not going to bother. 

I also have a smaller seering wheel on mine. Yes, it gives you a bicep workout, but I'd have no qualms about switching to a lighter, simpler manual rack witht he stock wheel if its only you thats going to be driving it. Different story if your wife is going to be parking it perhaps?

[EXCEL V8]

I've made up a complete electric column for my Elite, retaining the manual rack.  Don't know what it feels like yet 😕.  I'll let you know next year 😁.

Pete

[soldave]

8 hours ago, Dunc said:

its a far nicer drive without power steering. Its heavy at parking speeds, granted, but on the move its perfection.

i hadnt driven a power steering wedge until I bought that excel, and I didnt really like it at all. The power steering on my v8 was deleted due to pump clearance, and I'd always had a hankering after re-instating it as I have the bits and would use a remote saxo/ax electric pump mounted remotely, but after trying it, I'm not going to bother. 

I also have a smaller seering wheel on mine. Yes, it gives you a bicep workout, but I'd have no qualms about switching to a lighter, simpler manual rack witht he stock wheel if its only you thats going to be driving it. Different story if your wife is going to be parking it perhaps?

Interesting. Thanks for the thoughts. Would it be a straight swap for the manual rack and then just removing the pump, piping etc?. My only thought is considering the car does have a bit of history, I would like to keep it as close to original as possible.

[EXCEL V8]

I would think that fitting the manual rack would be fairly straightforward.  I've got a spare if you want to borrow one to assess it.

Personally I like power steering - wouldn't be without it 🙂.

The thing I dislike most on the Elite/Eclat/Excel is the low caster at the front.  I prefer more caster to improve the self-centring action of the steering - it's the reason I've got rid of the trunnions at the front so that I can play with the caster settings.

The electric power steering I've fitted to the Elite has a potentiometer to allow you to chose how much assistance you get;  virtually none to quite a bit.  I'm looking forward to trying it!

Pete

[soldave]

Beautiful day at the Garden Party, and more about that later. Car update!

Sono was quite nervous about the drive considering my pet steering leak issues but decided to give it a go. Left home at 6 and got there 3 and a half hours later. Sun was out and mild outside. Checked fluid when I parked up and all good.

Came the exact same route back and took about the same time but was much warmer so the temp gauge pegged at 90C. Got back and checked fluid, and noticed a small out had come out of the top of the reservoir past the cap. Before there was about 1cm of fluid above the strainer; now a few mm but still over.

I then checked coolant for a cursory check and found that was suuuper low. No visible leaks so I don't know if that cap is not good either. Think I'll try to replace both and see if my problem sorts itself out.

I do think the Lucas Stop Leak has had a positive effect, but still a few things to sort out.

Oh, and the headlining fell off again just as I pulled into Carleton Manor 😁

[soldave]

I didn't say but probably should... I did check my oil cap but no emulsion or anything bad looking there.

[soldave]

Got some more coolant yesterday and filled up. Need to bleed it but I was around a litre low. No obvious leaks and no signs of oil contamination so I don't know where it's heading off to.

But I can drive for weeks with no change in coolant. Then a 320-mile round trip to Norwich (mostly between 50 and 70mph, in warm weather) and it's dropped quite a bit. Strange.

[Trunnion 74]

8 hours ago, soldave said:

Got some more coolant yesterday and filled up. Need to bleed it but I was around a litre low. No obvious leaks and no signs of oil contamination so I don't know where it's heading off to.

But I can drive for weeks with no change in coolant. Then a 320-mile round trip to Norwich (mostly between 50 and 70mph, in warm weather) and it's dropped quite a bit. Strange.

 

Hi Dave, this may or may not be of any use.  I had a similar problem with an Omega I had, it would lose coolant but only seem to do it on longer runs and when it was warmer., none of the usual symptoms.   After much head scatching the problem was traced to a coolant pipe that sat between engine and bulkhead, it had a small hole in it, not big enough that it would drip but would lose coolant slowly.  On longer trips and warmer days the pipe had chance to expanded more and the hole got bigger and the presure in the system would allow water to escape at a faster rate and as a consequnce at the end of the journey a top up was required.

It may be worth checking the hoses (and unions) just to see if anything is amiss

Just a thought

Roland

[soldave]

7 hours ago, Trunnion 74 said:

 

Hi Dave, this may or may not be of any use.  I had a similar problem with an Omega I had, it would lose coolant but only seem to do it on longer runs and when it was warmer., none of the usual symptoms.   After much head scatching the problem was traced to a coolant pipe that sat between engine and bulkhead, it had a small hole in it, not big enough that it would drip but would lose coolant slowly.  On longer trips and warmer days the pipe had chance to expanded more and the hole got bigger and the presure in the system would allow water to escape at a faster rate and as a consequnce at the end of the journey a top up was required.

It may be worth checking the hoses (and unions) just to see if anything is amiss

Just a thought

Roland

Thanks for the thoughts. Started the car and warmed it up again and almost had a heart attack when I saw water dropping down the side of the engine and then off the sump onto thr ground. A closer inspection though and I think I've found the culprit:

That shortest of hoses between manifold water pump is the source of my leak. Took the old hose off this evening and what a pain that was. Would have been even more difficult if it wasn't rotten all the way through, but even so I had to end up cutting it away. No way am I going to get a new hose on there with everything in place so I might have to remove the inlet manifold to make it manageable.

[Tony D]

Good find. Sounds like that could have let you down in a catastrophic way at best needing recovery.

Tony 

[EXCEL V8]

Yes - well-spotted!

Pete