The Lotus Grand Tourers

Hi Radar,
I saw the comments! Thanks, that should help convince the girlfriend that it's not just me that's been watching it over and over
Henry's about 25 miles away at said girlfriend's parents house, so I'm not sure how they'd feel about me just rocking up with people they don't know.
I should be moving to a place with a garage next year so obviously everyone's welcome for a cup of tea and a natter then.
You're welcome for a cup of tea and a natter in my tiny flat / beer in my local now, but there's no Excel there.
Dan

crofty1984 wrote:Hi Radar,
I saw the comments! Thanks, that should help convince the girlfriend that it's not just me that's been watching it over and over
Henry's about 25 miles away at said girlfriend's parents house, so I'm not sure how they'd feel about me just rocking up with people they don't know.
I should be moving to a place with a garage next year so obviously everyone's welcome for a cup of tea and a natter then.
You're welcome for a cup of tea and a natter in my tiny flat / beer in my local now, but there's no Excel there.
Dan

No worries, I was a bit pushed for time in the end anyway!

I am hoping to drive my Excel down to Hethel next year anyway as I have not been back to the factory since 2005 and it is time she went 'home' again. I will take up the tea and cuppa offer then!

Another update! Started on the clutch and did some bits and bobs.

Goes into too much detail to be sensible, but it'll help me put it back together!

Latest post from www.danslotusproject.blogspot.com (pics are on the blog now)

Just a quick scribble whilst I remember. I'll have to get the pictures up once I'm home.

Yesterday's job was to start on the clutch, now I've got nice shiny new bits from Brake Engineering (excellent customer service by the way).

For those that are interested (so, me and no one else) Part numbers are:
Master Cylinder - MC1602BE
Slave Cylinder - WC1600BE

Unfortunately I was working single-handed for most of it so didn't get underneath the car last night. He is up on axle stands though.

Job 1 was to drain the fluid.
The pipe fitting into the slave cylinder was solid and I didn't want to risk rounding it off so the bleed nipple came out instead. Jumped back in the car and kept pumping the clutch pedal until no more fluid came out.

Next was to remove the master cylinder, which, due to me not having quite the right tool remains firmly attached. Anyway:

See how nice and accessible it is from the engine bay? Well then SURPRISE! all the mountings are on the inside of the car, in the footwell.
The panel under the dash needs to come off, simple job of 4 or 5 screws, then pull. Looks like I'll have to be careful lining up the heater hose when putting it back, but no worries.
The clutch M/C is up in the top right corner of the footwell. It's held on by 2 bolts (part of the M/C assembly) with nuts on the inside of the car which need undoing. Managed to get to one with a spanner, I'll have to come back later with a deep socket for the other. The bolt is quite long so the end of the bolt was hitting the back of my normal-sized socket before it got near the nut.
The actuator arm is held on by an R-clip which you can ping off and pull the linkage away. There's supposed to be 2 fibre washers, but they were missing.
I intended the M/C to be a belt n' braces approach to the clutch hydraulics, as it's usually the slave cylinder which jams. But mine is leaking, so it's a good job I'm sorting both ends.

The headlamps also came out so I could have a look behind them and replace the bulbs. Oiled up the mechanosm and it seems fairly free. Have to whip the motors out.

Anyway, some pictures below:

Clutch master cylinder in situ







This panel has to come out



There it is




Master cylinder connected to the pedal




A better shot


Behind the nearside headlight



If you don't have a proper engineer's marking pen, a Tippex pen will do just fine.


Last on the road...




Also, I found that a gaiter on the steering rack has had it.



Henry's impression of a Porsche 928.


This picture reminded me of a scene in Short-Circuit 2 "Initiating spectro-analyser!"




Couldn't find a shot of that particular scene, but here's a gratuitous pic of Johnny 5 anyway



Next steps:
Remove clutch hydraulics and replace. 3 more bolts and it'll be removed.
Remove Headlamp motors
Fix steering rack gaiter
Full service

Since you're coming to the NEC - could you print off some of your blog & posts so we can put them on the display boards ?

Hi Angus, no problem. Should be there Saturday morning. I'll try and edit them a bit if I get time, I'm not sure anyone needs to know the exact dimensions of the R-Clip, etc! But failing that, I'll print it off as-is and you can pick and choose.
Fame at last!

crofty1984 wrote:Fame at last!

A brief update: Clutch hydraulics all out. Can't get the hose off the slave cylinder, which gives me a perfect excuse to buy a nice shiny braided one!
Started on the headlamps too, took the pods out but then thought it was best if I concentrated on one job at a time, or I'll just lose track. Not looking forward to putting the master cylinder back on!

Hi. Are you sure about the part numbers as WC..... Refers to a wheel cylinder. In this case a wheel cylinder on a BMW

Henry's impression of a Porsche 928.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HkPr93HlXIA/U ... 11-235.jpg

Calendar picture!

Slave cylinder was the wrong one
Just about got it to fit with some swearing, but the bleed nipple points down so I can't bleed it. I guess I could take it off and bleed that way, but for the sake of £30 or so I might as well make a proper job of it!

Haven't fitted mine but Matt Debbage got master ans slave for me at Panks.

We're overdue for an update on this one Crofty - are you making progress ?

No massive updates really, I've been moving house and other projects have been taking up my time.
Clutch hydraulics all installed, going to fit a new return spring at the pedal box as I'm sure there's not enough movement at the slave, and I've bled the hell out of it.
Also, one of the light motors isn't borked!

I'm waiting on my bond back from my last place having moved house, and I'm working up a shopping list!

Update! Just ripped straight from the blog:

It's been a while since any updates. I've not been near the Lotus much, due to house moves and one thing or another. I've been pottering about here and there but nothing too impressive.

Anyway, the progress so far:

CLUTCH

The clutch hydraulic components are all fitted and bled, I had the wrong slave cylinder, which was a pain, but got that all sorted now. In my opinion the clutch pedal doesn't have nearly enough travel, I think it's not returning up to the stop far enough. I'm going to get a new clutch pedal return spring and see how I get on. Then try re-bleeding again. I only seem to be getting the bottom inch or so of travel on the pedal. Anyone feel free to chip in with ideas!


ELECTRICS

Well the rats chewed through some of the loom, which is still holding together and passing current, but will obviously need more wire letting in before I replace the panel. (Those snaps are from the driver's footwell looking up). This may necessitate removing the driver's seat, but I hope not!

I've popped out the headlights and pods. Happily, the left motor works. Before I go buying a spare for the right hand side, I want to charge up the battery and get a multimeter on it to make sure current's going to all the right places. That's a task for January.

ENGINE

The engine's a runner, but I've started a service. The oil filter you can get to with half the airbox off, but my strap wrench started crushing the body of the filter, so the full airbox had to come off. That means taking the intake trumpets off (reminder for me - 2x10mm nuts per trumpet, spring washers, fixed stud for the lower one, loose bolt for the top). There are two pipes that go into the rear of the airbox, these need to come off, as does the throttle helper spring. Once that's off, you have better access to the oil filter, but it was still an absolute bugger to get off. Still, that's 10 years in a hedge for you. New filter is on and the airbox is back, but with only 2 trumpets. I lost a couple of the washers and a couple more were missing already. If I'm going to put this car back together, I might as well do it properly!

INTERIOR
The really ugly gashes where animals/mould/aliens had eaten through the C-pillar fabric was annoying me, so out it came! Like a harassed octopus, the car retaliated by covering me in black shit. Foamy, rather than inky in this case though.

Some Photos on the blog: www.danslotusproject.blogspot.com

Hi.

Take it form one who knows, tackling one job at a time is better but it's so easy to get sidetracked it's almost impossible to stick with that rule.

Clutch, do you have the assist spring in place? It is supposed to pull the clutch actuation arm such that it is lightly engaged with the release bearing, that means the slave cylinder doesn't return to the fully resting position and so the clutch is ready for use and you get a better pedal. That spring is slightly counter-intuitive, as my first thought was that it was the wrong way and should be pulling the arm so that the bearing is completely free, but that would be incorrect.


Wiring, think yourself lucky, mine wasn't rats, my loom was chopped near the fuse box, not deliberately, a person trapped it between the steel plates and severed lots of wires, some completely, some in more than one place along the length. Nightmare, at least yours shouldn't be that bad.