Ian's S4s refurb

[Loose Cannon]

The turbo drain is listed by SJ Sportscars at £140 +VAT etc but apart from being expensive it seems a shame to put another mild steel component back in such a harsh place.

I have to clean my coolant level plunger thingy regularly, goodness knows what it's made of inside! It actually sets off a code 26 error when it gets really bad.

[Chillidoggy]

Yes, it must be winter, because Ian's got the Esprit in bits yet again. The thread continues..............

The car has always pulled to one side a bit, so after ordering absolutely everything I decided to rebuild the front suspension. Naturally, I will have omitted  to order some widget or other, but I got all the usual bushes and balljoints. I started on the driver's side first (that's the right hand side for anyone in the U.S.).

It soon became clear that someone else has been in there before me, and not that long ago, either. This did have benefits, in as much as none of the bolts were seized, but it also begs the question whether the bloke who did the job before me knew what he was doing. I have very little documented history with this car, and so I've found it safer to assume the worse, and hope for the best.

 The first mistake I found was the top wishbone arms had been fitted incorrectly, in as much as they were reversed, front one fitted at the back, and vice versa. It was difficult to say which, if any bushes had been replaced, however the top wishbone bushes were pretty good.

The damper looks very good, almost new, but I have thus far been unable to identify it. It has 'OJC', 'Made in England' and '08264237' stamped on the body. It does have a very distinctive red and yellow 'target' painted on it, but my Internet searches have drawn a blank. So if anyone recognises it, then please shout. I'll decide whether to replace the dampers and springs after the usual good long dose of dithering around.

[Barrykearley]

??? Upper wishbone arms - front and back ???? Aren't these just the same bits of metal ????

im sure hoping they are as when I did mine I never paid any attention to that as they are listed as the same and look the same ???

[Chillidoggy]

Sadly, no. They're different, well at least on the S4s, anyway. Check the service notes, Section CF.

[Barrykearley]

Ok - same on mine - for absolute certain - whoop panic set in there !!

[Sparky]

You finished it yet?

[Bibs]

http://www.lotus-spare-parts.co.uk/esprit-front-damper-x180ses4s4sgt3/

These ones?

 

[Chillidoggy]

Difficult to tell without seeing if they have the red and yellow target. Plus they all have the same dimensions, so I guess it'll be nigh on impossible. Hey-ho.

[Chillidoggy]

I removed the remainder of the suspension this afternoon. and found the reason for the car pulling to the left - the left hand side top wishbone arms had been put on arse about face; the bell-end that did the job last time hadn't fitted them correctly. Despite all the castor shims in the world, it was still showing a big fat zero castor on the Hunter machine. Kind of vindicates my 'safer to assume the worst' policy.

On the S4s at least, the top wishbone arms are different. Here's the proof, first a set side-by-side. The increased angle is plain to see, and set the top balljoint further aft to give the suspension the castor angle it needs:-

Then the two sets, the forward arms are on the right hand side.

 

So far, I removed the front radius arm bushes, but couldn't find the right tubes to push out the remainder, so that will have to be a job for later, maybe tomorrow. The lower balljoints in particular look like a real hoot.

[Loose Cannon]

Wow you are determined to get your money's worth out of that scissor lift!

[Barrykearley]

They are very obviously different - even have a notch by the ball joint mountings - how the hell did he get them mixed up???

[Chillidoggy]

Carelessness, ignorance, stupidity?

Just shows how important it is to know precisely what you're doing when you're working on a car that's capable of nearly 170 mph, eh?

[sailorbob]

How did you deduce which was the front and which was the rear? I ask because the illustration on page 5 of Service Notes Section CF shows the wishbone with the reinforced outermost fixing hole as the rear wishbone.

[Chillidoggy]

Having had another good look, I'm now suspecting that it may in fact not be the LHS side wishbone arms that have been fitted incorrectly, but instead it may be the RHS. The PO looks to have put the maximum castor shims in to try to compensate on the left, but failed miserably. I suspect the castor washers aren't in the right position. More later when I've had a measure and given it some more thought. Whatever, it's a proper balls-up.

[swindon_alan]

On 01/01/2016 at 17:39, ian29gte said:

The damper looks very good, almost new, but I have thus far been unable to identify it. It has 'OJC', 'Made in England' and '08264237' stamped on the body. It does have a very distinctive red and yellow 'target' painted on it, but my Internet searches have drawn a blank. So if anyone recognises it, then please shout. I'll decide whether to replace the dampers and springs after the usual good long dose of dithering around.

Hello Ian

I have had a good go at the front dampers too and can't find anything either. It is interesting that they are fairly new and "Made in England" as there are only a limited number of UK manufacturers like Nitron, Quantum, Protech etc. and they are very loud with branding and labels and quite distinctive.

Dunno! Let me know if you do find out.

Cheers

Alan

[eeyoreish]

My new front dampers came direct from Lotus last year and have the 'target' on them.

[swindon_alan]

5 minutes ago, eeyoreish said:

My new front dampers came direct from Lotus last year and have the 'target' on them.

Bingo! Brilliant Neil, thanks. Looks like keepers then Ian?

I wonder who made them though?

[Barrykearley]

I need some rears !!!

[Chillidoggy]

5 hours ago, swindon_alan said:

Bingo! Brilliant Neil, thanks. Looks like keepers then Ian?

I wonder who made them though?

 

Actually, no!

I really feel the car could do with some different dampers and possibly springs. Ironically, Sparky gave it a damn good thrashing when he was here last week and said the same. That said, I might change my mind once the front suspension has been rebuilt, and all the geometry has been set properly.

[Chillidoggy]

My first thoughts were wrong, my second are confirmed.

Despite being the side with no castor, the LHS top wishbone halves were in the correct position. The castor spacer washer wasn't, hence it had pushed the whole assembly back by 6mm, giving the zero camber result.

The RHS wishbones were definitely reversed, yet I still had 3 degrees of castor, which was puzzling. I deduced that the castor shims negated the wishbone halves reversal, and the only reason it had the correct castor was the castor spacer washer being in the 'wrong' position. shoving the assembly rearwards.

All the suspension bushes have now been changed. I had to machine a taper tube in order to fit the forward lower bush, and two for the lower balljoint. They all came out easily, and went back in OK.

I noticed the anti-roll bar has worn where it pivots in the steel sleeve of the wishbone bushes, I guess it's to be expected after 20 years, and 60,000 miles. I did look at a repair, but that was a non-starter, so I shall order a new one. It's now a case of setting it up, and torqueing the bolts.

 

[sailorbob]

So what you're saying is that the wishbone with the reinforced outermost fixing hole should be the front wishbone? Time to make a note in my service notes

[Chillidoggy]

4 hours ago, sailorbob said:

So what you're saying is that the wishbone with the reinforced outermost fixing hole should be the front wishbone? Time to make a note in my service notes

 

Put your specs on and have a closer look at my last post!

 

[sailorbob]

I must be missing something because from that picture the wishbone with the reinforced outermost fixing hole looks to be the front wishbone.

[andydclements]

To get that setup right it would have been castor shims made of billet ali instead of sheet steel. 

[Chillidoggy]

32 minutes ago, sailorbob said:

I must be missing something because from that picture the wishbone with the reinforced outermost fixing hole looks to be the front wishbone.

 

No, you're not missing anything, Derek. It is in that photo, I had the wishbones halves first in the original position and then reversed them. You can't see it in that photo, but by using a straight edge, it brings it home the difference between the two orientations. I'm hoping it will sort the problem out once I get it checked, I don't have the equipment to do that, though I'm hoping to get it up to KwikFit soon to tell me if I've managed to get it right. Or not.