Ian's S4s refurb

[silverfrost]

Good work Ian, Looks very awkward, solved that problem on mine by clam shelling the front end. 

Edited April 12, 2016 by Bibs

[Chillidoggy]

The more complicated job is assembling the rad-pack in the correct order. Getting it in and out is the easy part, as I will position it initially on the trestle, lower the lift, and make small adjustments until its in the right position before bolting it up.

[Chillidoggy]

The rad-pack went back in today. With the lift, it wasn't too bad a job, although a little bit of shoving around was required for alignment of the bolt holes. I'd had to repair some of the GRP where the holes had cracked, or broken, and it all appears to be good.  As per usual, there was something I forgot, and that's the charge-cooler pipes. Still, I'll have do do the Gyno act, and see what happens.

The original horns were in a sorry state, only one of them was working, so I bought new pair. Sadly, on fitting them, one of the terminal connectors parted company from its horn, which caused me a bit of head scratching as I didn't want to stop the job. The brass terminals are spot-welded, so I ended up throwing caution to the wind, drilling the terminal connection, and getting the blowtorch on it with some solder. Thankfully, I didn't melt too much of the horn itself, and on connecting it up to a battery to check it, it was so loud I nearly shat my pants.

The radiator supports went on loosely, as I needed to fit the new anti-roll bar. I then spent half an hour scratching my head as I can't for the life of me remember which way up it goes, and despite taking photos of what I thought was everything, I never got one of the original bar. Any help here gratefully received.

By that time, the rum was calling loudly, so I retired indoors.

No photos today, but I will post some soon.

[pete]

Gyno act? Sounds like a job for Sparky

[Sparky]

I like to keep my hand in.

[Chillidoggy]

I'd take you up on that but you did say it's tight at the moment, and you weren't sure if you could fit me in.

[silverfrost]

Good effort Ian glad to se it is coming back together well,  Regarding your front anti roll bar, not sure if it would be off any help for what you are looking for, but put lotus esprit  front suspension or lotus chassis in on ebay and it will come up with a red s4 car from douglas valley breakers,  The pictures are pretty clear and show all the front suspension and ant roll bar from different angles, if you can see through the rust that is  His prices are shite but he does like taking pictures   May be of some help or may not,but worth a shot 

[Chillidoggy]

Finally managed to fit the anti-roll bar. The distance between the centres of the ARB bushes changes with suspension travel, which means jacking each side up or down so the end can be slid in. I've put it in so the central part of the bar is lower than the two ends, which kick up. It looks OK to me, but I won't know until I get the suspension finished off. Once the radiator duct braces were in and bolted up, it felt solid. I did have to drill and tap one of them a size bigger at the duct end, as it had previously rattled loose, and knackered its thread.

I decided to check the oil cooler pipe union threads were clean; I didn't want them binding up on the soft alloy cooler threads, especially given their not inconsiderable price. Just as well I did, because three were obstructive, and one had damaged threads. Some head scratching and a phone call later, and I had a 5/8" BSP plug tap to use. Luckily it worked, and all the threads are now clean.

I got started on boxing up the front suspension, it now needs to be tightened at the correct ride height, and I won't be able to do that until maybe tomorrow. Meanwhile, Shan is busy painting in the lounge, so I'll have to turn to and muck in for more brownie points to enable me to get back out in the garage. She asked me whether I'm going to fit the PNM brake kit while I'm at it, and apart from concerns about bleeding the bleeding brakes, I reckon that could be on the cards.

No photos today. Lots of swearing went on but not much to see, really. And now it's time for

 

[Barrykearley]

I found a cricket bat was very useful for installing that bar

[Chillidoggy]

I only had a baseball bat to use, so that must have been the problem.

[Barrykearley]

you needs a cricket one

[Chillidoggy]

Ha, ha! Brilliant!

[Barrykearley]

I really wasn't joking !! A superb tool of choice for the anti roll bar

[Chillidoggy]

Turning to the oil coolers, I managed to fit one of the new ones this morning. Interestingly, there's a blind, threaded boss on one side, opposite one of the BSP fittings. I wondered whether that was part of the fastening arrangement, but when I removed the old ones, the only thing that appeared to be holding them in place was the half nuts and washers on the tops, and support from underneath in the form of the ducting and GRP lower panel. So far, I managed to tighten the lower pipe, which was a struggle, the top balance pipe still has to go in. I did coat th threads with Duralac, in the vain hope that it will prevent the unions from binding if or when they have to be removed again.

The oil cooler plastic ducts are secured at the forward end by a downward-facing M6 stud-plate, grafted on to the mesh grille that covers the air duct in the front lower valance by use of Sikaflex. Sadly, this has to have been one of Lotus' piss-poor decisions, as both of mine had rusted away, and disappeared. This could explain the noise from the wife, as horns were knocking against the valance. The moaning was more distracting than the knocking. Not being one to alter external appearances, I nevertheless considered the removal of the grille, and the manufactur of a stud-plate in stainless. I finally decided to drill up through the opening m and fit a flanged button head stainless screw, as it saves a lot of work, and is quite unobtrusive.

[Jacques]

Soon to be driven!

Jacques.

[Chillidoggy]

Next up was replacing the GRP tray under the RHS oil cooler, before removing it again when I realised I'd omitted to fit the foglight. I bought a new pair a while ago, as the reflector on one was rusty, and it just  needed the Lotus angle-iron bracket swopping over to the new light, and some new connectors, as they weren't the same type. Well, they wouldn't be, would they? Boxed that up again, and it looks OK.

 

 

[Chillidoggy]

And I thought I'd open up the box on the next project, which I'll tackle depending on how much time I have nice I've finished the rest of the long list - 

 

 

[Barrykearley]

Now that's smutty....... It's a mornings graft and swearing - get em on

[silverfrost]

1 hour ago, ian29gte said:

 

 

 

Ian you know you are a good returning customer when they write your first name on the Zip bags 

[Chillidoggy]

2 hours ago, Barrykearley said:

Now that's smutty....... It's a mornings graft and swearing - get em on

 

I guess it's a sign of my ever increasing years, and waistline, that the words have changed from "get 'em off" to "get 'em on".

[rocket63]

3 hours ago, ian29gte said:

Next up was replacing the GRP tray under the RHS oil cooler, before removing it again when I realised I'd omitted to fit the foglight. I bought a new pair a while ago, as the reflector on one was rusty, and it just  needed the Lotus angle-iron bracket swopping over to the new light, and some new connectors, as they weren't the same type. Well, they wouldn't be, would they? Boxed that up again, and it looks OK.

 

 

Tip top Ian.

[swindon_alan]

1 hour ago, ian29gte said:

I guess it's a sign of my ever increasing years, and waistline, that the words have changed from "get 'em off" to "get 'em on".

...and foreplay means taking your socks off...

[Barrykearley]

[Chillidoggy]

The oil cooler fastening has been bugging me. I even woke up in the night thinking about it, as it just didn't seem right somehow. This morning I checked the parts manual. Low and behold, it does indeed show a securing bolt for the threaded boss. I found no bolts when I removed the old units though, which is what threw me. It was just a horribly corroded and rusty mess in that area, so it must be that the bolt and the boss had simply disintegrated over the last 20 years, as had most of the oil coolers.

This means two things: Firstly, in order to replace the securing bolt I'm going to have to remove all what I put back in yesterday. Secondly it'll teach me to pay better attention to the parts manual when I'm dismantling and replacing bits in the future.

[Chillidoggy]

Right hand oil cooler done, I ended up removing the fog light to get the plastic duct out, too.

Meanwhile, I've been thinking some more about how I'm going to tighten up the balance pipe union that screws to the top. Despite having released the brake pump from its mountings, access for a spanner on the RHS is pretty awkward, and I'm unsure if a crow-foot will fit, although I haven't tried yet. Getting a straight pull on it is going to be difficult with a normal combination spanner, so I might have to get the oxy-acetylene out and do some creative bending of one. The LHS has better access, but still the same problem of no straight pull. Clearly the unions need to be tight enough for them not to leak, but no so tight as to strip the alloy thread.

 

The easy one:-