Time to start explaining

[Barrykearley]

Right - time to fess up publically. The S4s won’t be at Duxford.

The whole sorry fking story goes - for those who don’t know

friday - ooh look the suns out - let’s shake the old girl down. Take a run upto my mates place 8 miles or so.

all the way she pulled like a train - absolutely fantastic. Upon arrival and general chit chat - we looked at the car and the steamy engine bay became the talking point. A spray of water was found from the bottom of the inlet manifold. I limped the bitch home in disgrace and dumped her in the garage

now - I’m no quittter. So I had some grub and snuck back out to have a looksee.

inlet pulled off the car sadly the gasket didn’t survive 

 Underneath is a core plug - and it’s got a hole in. 1” core plug - smacked it out - it was rotten.

Ahh - this is doable I think. So my buddy next door has a core plug in his old tractor workshop. All I need is a gasket.

the S4 was booked in for mot this morning - so whipped her into bromyard. Test passed no advisories. Ring Mattys - yes the have a gasket in stock. Whooph - up the road went the S4 to collect.

get back home, collect eldest from work, appease wife, piss off wife, put car back together. Cook a steak on the bbq and off to try the car. 

Well - it’s superb. I pop into b&q to pick up some bits. Now I hadn’t put the engine cover on - so I notice the lamdba sensor is melting before it catches fire - and i cable tie that out the way. But I do notice some white powdery residue on the exhaust cam pulley. A rub between the fingers and a sniff tell me I ain’t marching happy on that.

car back home - it drove amazingly I must say. Proper close inspection on that pulley and it’s the silicon hose which is by it - it has almost rubbed through - there’s a groove and it’s big I mean massive. How it’s not blown I don’t know. 

I remember loosing a lot of skin fitting that pipe and getting it clear of the pulley was  hard - it was clear though. It’s not now.

i simply cannot be bothered anymore  - I’ve tried and sadly I have failed this time round.

huff.

 

on the plus side - took the S4 to pick up my youngest from a party - The Dad was most chuffed to see an Esprit grace his driveway. They make you smile like a 911 never will he said 🤜

 

[cbclotus]

Keep at it Barry . ......Mike

[Barrykearley]

Only a complete Lotus mong would be jetwashing the car in the dark with the outside lights on.

[lotus4s]

FWIW Barry, 

On that silicone coolant hose below the ex cam pulley,  I've found that the replacements we have here from JAE seem to be a little too long and trimming 6-8 mm off the water pump end allows a little more clearance of the pulley. Not sure if yours are the same there but worth a look...Jim

[Barrykearley]

I cut about 10mm off it when I fitted it. It was right by the pulley but clear. Its obviously shifted and it’s now destined for the bin. A rubber one will be fitted.

what is noticeable is the thickness of the silicon hose is much thicker.

valuable lesson learnt - won’t be fitting that sort of thing again.

[Barrykearley]

S4s chucked on my mates ramp today - and that hateful pipe removed.

im glad I never took her to Duxford !!

now refitted the original hose - which has lots of clearance. The silicon one is a rubbish pattern in comparison to the genuine article.

just need to get all the air out of the system now - but I finally have 2 working, motd, road legal esprits in the garage once more.

always worth having a spare

[Chillidoggy]

I bought all new silicone coolant hoses. Every last one of them.

Six months later I bought new rubber ones and replaced them all.

[Barrykearley]

I thought it would be simple - I really did.

bought a remote locking kit to fit on this one as I only have a key to unlock it with and that’s very last century.

so I fit the thing - copying a diagram I found on here from some other thread - nope lots of hassle didn’t work. Back to the drawing board and crack out the multimeter.

Plenty of help and advice from a fellow tlf’er has really helped. I managed somehow to be in a position whereby the passenger door deadlocked - getting that back open was ummmm fun. Anyway - all done - unlocks and locks on the button.

ive a spare trunk button - so that’s wired upto the driver side filler flap release 👍

window roll up - well - that’s flabbered my gast beyond anything else. Passenger side doesn’t roll up when grounding the roll up pin. Drivers side , which is a calibra window motor, that rolls down 🤪. I’ve tried and tried - and sworn a lot. Now given up. The new controller will roll up the windows - it’s got a timed output on it - so I’ve ordered some relays and I will beat it a different way. 

For today - I have some success. The courtesy lights now all work. 

Postman has also delivered lots more parts for the impending abs deletion program

[eeyoreish]

Have you tried just using the key? 

[Barrykearley]

Its frankly a pain in the ass having to put a key in a lock. Come on get with the times

[CarBuff]

Can't wait to see your write-up on Keyless Ignition, then! 😊

[Barrykearley]

Got the button sorted 

[Steve V8]

Nice to see @Barrykearley 's Lotus Elise at Castle Coombe today, you kept that one a secret.

[Barrykearley]

So now the brakes are brilliant - my attention must revert to other pressing issues.

It looks like both rear shockers are weeping now - they drive fine - but clunky. On hard cornering - they are not fine.

new shockers ordered for all round today, new bushes and I need to compile a list of nuts bolts and ball joints to get ordered next week.

the big question is what colour do I paint the bits before refitting them??

[swindon_alan]

Which bits? Doesn't LOTAC come with yellow shocks (matching yer wheels mate) and blue springs (in memory of the S4). Or are you going to treat the ball joints to some powder coat?

[Barrykearley]

Bottom arms, top arms front and back 

Sure the top ball joints are these 

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F182231503438

[Sparky]

Looks like a fruit salad.

[Barrykearley]

Stop taking the piss and look at the ball joints

[Sparky]

Cheap as chips mate.  They're off a Raleigh Grifter.

[swindon_alan]

1 hour ago, Sparky said:

Looks like a fruit salad.

This was the box his suspension kit came in...

[Barrykearley]

Top ball joints triumph herald/gt6/spitfire 

track rod ends ES3238RL off a Buick 

just bottoms to hunt out now

 

[swindon_alan]

Track rod ends

[swindon_alan]

Found this in a cross ref file:

Will keep looking.

[Barrykearley]

Poss mk1 cavalier 

[swindon_alan]

They're pretty cheap from SJ anyway Barry:

Unless he is out of stock, but I will continue - useful to know what they are!