Esprit Turbo project car - part3 - the further continuation

[Lotusfab]

I will also report on the Turbo. I rebuilt it almost two years ago now. I marked the shaft positions and assembled it as was. Many said I should balance it. So I intend to run it as is and report as to how it runs. Any vibration and it will all be taken apart and balanced, so wait and see! 

[Andyww]

I should do my turbo. The bolts have no heads left so I will have a challenge with that!

I know people have rebuilt these without balancing before but I would be very tempted to take it to a turbo place to have them run it up for peace of mind, which presumably they could do on the spot. I am not sure how you would tell if its out of balance after fitting, other than when its too late! I doubt any vibration manifests itself outside of the actual rotor as its so light compared to the whole thing.

[910Esprit]

Dont take the head off for no reason.  Why not just spin it up out of the car for a compression check?  I assume you've already  checked your valve crearances are good.

Every turbo I've seen (not that many!) has evidence of balancing (the ground down spindle securing nut).   That suggests to me it should be done for long life.   On the other hand very few G Esprits seem to do many miles these days, so even a home balance may be OK for the next 20 years.....      

[Lotusfab]

43 minutes ago, 910Esprit said:

Dont take the head off for no reason.  Why not just spin it up out of the car for a compression check?  I assume you've already  checked your valve crearances are good.

Every turbo I've seen (not that many!) has evidence of balancing (the ground down spindle securing nut).   That suggests to me it should be done for long life.   On the other hand very few G Esprits seem to do many miles these days, so even a home balance may be OK for the next 20 years.....      

Doubt if this car will get many miles. But interesting to see how the Turbo will perform. Good idea to test the compression. I will do this and decide whether to take the head off based on the results.

[Lotusfab]

Ski racks

well I'm going to,have a go at the rear ski rack first. The process I have decided on has many stages. You can see from the picture that to date everyone I have seen has failed to replicate these exactly. You can see from the top picture they are on a metal plate which overlaps the rear Louvre.

This is the process.

1. Cardboard templates FO r cross section.

2. Styrofoam cutting with hot knife.

3, cover in epoxy resin and glass cloth.

4. Full with Epoxy filler and smooth.

then the cleaver bit. Make a split mould so the back of the rack can be cast indecently. These moulds will be used to make two parts which will be joined at the seem. They won't be loadbearing as we have seen they crack. Underneath an aluminium construction that is bolted to the tailgate and takes the ski loads. Sounds simple, but let's see how it turns out. I have considered carbon fiber which may be simpler, but Ive used it before!

 

 

[Lotusfab]

Getting it done!windscreen finished.finally connected the vacuum reservoir.

[Lotusfab]

I used the dry method for fixing the decals. Make sure the body is clean before applying. Use tape the Mark the corner positions of the decal so you can get the placement correct. Use a pin to burst bubbles and rub them out. 

[Lotusfab]

Got all of the decals done today except the very rear ones. I replaced a few connectors  on the rear of the loom where previous owners had been modifying them! Quite easy with the correct tools! 

[910Esprit]

At last, the lamp pod!.

[Lotusfab]

Funny enough I put the electrics on to testbthe fuel tank gauage(which didn't work) and that light pod popped up! I had to wind it down by hand. I've got a feeling there will be weeks of electrical diagnostics ahead!😩😩😩😩

My latest problem Is the wiper leads aren't long enough because I put the wiper control box in the wrong place! Will have to get used to lying upside down under the dash again!

On a brighter note the gearstick from Pete at PNM has now been sorted by Cranford engineering and will be off to get chromed. A few things are outstanding

knob for Aircon - if anyone has one I'm your man! 

Aircon graphics panel

It's really coming along quite quickly at the moment.

[Lotusfab]

Electrics

just thought it might be useful for some of you to have more info on the electrics. So I'm thinking of posting what doesn't work electrically and the solutions.

At the moment the headlights, right indicator and fuel gauge are not working. Firstly I'm going to connect the stalks to the steering colum. To do this I have to move the wiper control. It's screwed into the dash base in the wrong place. Once this is moved the stalks can go back on. Then I will look to fix the other issues. Most of the time the electrical faults are bad connections. Either at the fuse box or switch contact. Contact cleaner and cycling switches may fix it. You must have an ohm meter to check for continuity. With the headlights the motor brushes or internal switch contacts in the motor may be the fault. I have serviced all motors on this car, but that doesn't always fix things!

So when I have the stalks in I will report back. The rear lights are all disconnected as he rear spoiler has to come off again. 

Oh, and you must have the circuit diagram. There are some wires in the engine bay I havn't heat identified, as I'm only familiar with the S1 wiring. This car has a lot of extra circuits. Most of these wires are redundant as modern electronic ignition is fitted. The luminition was removed years ago.

Right, off to put the stalks back on!

By the way I really like doing electrics, it's one of my favourite jobs. Some of the body stuff is necessary, but really boring!

[Andyww]

You probably know this but it caught me out!  The wiper control box, being designed for a metal car has an earth wire with a round tag on one of the screws holding it to the dash. If this is not connected it wont work.  

[Lotusfab]

Thanks Andy, I didn't know that! I have reversed the box and have the stalks in, easy so far. Now will have to test it! By not working do you mean the wipers won't move or the timing circuit won't work? Where does it earth to? Looks like a plastic case?

[Lotusfab]

Fuel gauge problem solved. I changed the sender and the new one has no earth, so I don't connect the earth wire! All three must attach to the sender!

[Andyww]

The wipers dont work without the earth tag, its a typical piece of Lucas (lack of) design where there is a rivet through the plastic, which carries current, and gets warm, causes the plastic to melt which reduces the connection more, and melts more... mine was shot and I re-wired by soldering an earth wire inside the case to the PCB.

The earth tag should be floating about in there somewhere, from the harness.

On my car I fitted the stalks 180 degrees rotated so they are more conventional layout but that would not be Bond Car original

[Lotusfab]

Thanks Andy. Will pm you later off to Cranford Eng.

[Lotusfab]

Solutions.

Left headlight popping up - arm connect 180 degrees out. 

Front indicator, loose earth connection- now fixed.

pop up lights are working after cycling the switch several times(dirty contacts), but the front left bulb isn't. Probably a bad connection. Wipers are dead as is the horn. Have located an earth wire that's not connected somwill try connecting this to the wiper control unit as Andy said. So far all the fixes have been straight forward, fingers crossed.

Thanks to Cranford Engineering Leatherhead the gearstick has been repaired. The original top has been welded to the thicker bottom so it can't snap. Stunning job,can't even see the weld! 

[Lotusfab]

Now it's off for chroming.

[stephenwhyte]

It’s all in the detail Fabian - the thinner chromed gearstick you’ll have is a much better looking thing than the thicker later black one👏

[Lotusfab]

Drivers side - indicator on wing not working. Push fit bulb contacts had failed. Left Hi beam light not working dirty connection - fixed. 

The main light switch still has dirty contacts, this is probably the number one reason for the lights not popping up! . I plan to clean it In an ultra sonic bath and use contact cleaner. 

The fibre optic light source for instrument illumination is not working. The bulb light source comes on but there is no light from the fibres. Any ideas? I thought maybe dirt so will have to take it apart. 

 

[Lotusfab]

Fibre optics

For those of you that don't know the instruments are illuminated by bulbs and a fiberoptic system illuminates the switches. What is this fibre optic system? It's simply a bulb holder and the light from the bulb is transmitted to the switches by. Fibre optic leads. These are like wires but instead of electricity they transmit light using Total internal reflection(look this up if interested). So my switches don't illluminate despite the bulb in the fibre optic source illuminating, Why? The only thing I can think of is dirt. There must be dirt on the end of the fibre optic wires. So now I have to take it all to pieces and clean it! If that doesn't work I'm at a loss. Will report back as to the solution.

[Lotusfab]

The fiber optic has a bulb in it which pulls out. The silver cap screws off. Inside lenses as per the picture. Make sure it's all clean. You can see why two of the fibre strand didn't work, they have been flattened by bending! You can buy them from S and J. 

Thevheadlight switch has been cleaned. Just spray contact cleaner and exercise. This is the biggest reason why this car doesn't work sometimes, just dirty contacts or bad earths. I had to take the indicator bulb out and clean it all, despite thinking as gad fixed it yesterday! Just wiggling bulbs till they come on isn't good enough. Kicking them every time you go out is a pain! 

The tiny instrument bulbs shown in the pic are Lucas LLb286, available on eBay- genuine of course! 

Well the can of worms has been prised open and I know I will have to replace everything! So I have the horn and wipers left to do. The horn is probably the contacts again. I replaced the horn with a new one. 

[Lotusfab]

Well the can of worms has been prised open and I know I will have to replace everything! So I have the horn and wipers left to do. The horn is probably the contacts again. I replaced the horn with a new one. Horn was an easy fix, I forgot to put the relay in!

[Lotusfab]

Hand Brake light now working contacts were the wrong way around so when the handbrake was off the light was on. 

Andy - thanks that earth wire was for the wiper control unit, without it connected to the bolt hole on the case the system is dead. Just have to connect the wire and the wipers will be fixed.

These fibre optics are causing a problem. S and J no longer supply the leads. I managed to buy a new unit minus the wires. I figure it will be brighter as all the reflective surfaces are new. I may have to look into fibre optics and make two small leads😫😫😫

The offside headlight has stopped working again. I traced it to a faulty sealed unit, the wiring is fine. 

Nearly every instrument bulb has failed so I'll have to replace them all. It's progressing quickly although I did get a short whilst testing. Never balance electrical panels! I'm hoping it hasn't taken out the light circuit as it's stopped working! It will not work if the battery charge is low so IA am hopingnthis is the issue. Only the fans left to check and the electrics are all online! Pretty quick compared to my last attempt which took months. Although I think the Turbo has much better electrics than the S1.  

[Lotusfab]

The light switch is intermittent so I bought a new one. There's an easy way to tell if the switch is the problem.therethere are two relays. One does the flash and the other is a changeover. When the switch is on the brown and blue wires connect together and the wires above are short circuit. So remove the switch and shunt the brown and blue with a piece of wire. The headlights should pop up. If they do your switch is dirty of broke! Quite a simple circuit. The only things that could be wrong are dirty contacts, Broken relay or flat battery.