The Nut

Hi to all, Finally managed to get the éclat out of the garage and the elite in, have double checked every thing and all appears ok. decided to strip off the inlet manifold and as the photos show the gasket appears not to be not stuck on either of the mating surfaces on ports 2 & 3, I guess this is my vacuum leak. Question, I have two new gaskets, do I put both on dry, put one on and use a liquid gasket on both mating surfaces, use a liquid gasket and stick the two new gaskets to make an extra thick one. I have put a steel rule across both faces and they appear to be flat. Any suggestions welcome. John

Hi to all, ended up making a bracket to extend the existing fixings away from the gear stick assembly. Bracket on left below. You can just see it below, under the radio aperture, problem resolved. Used one of the lower fixings and drilled a couple of new fixings into the too of the transmission tunnel. Regards to all John

Have just spent the last hour reading the manual, which has almost no detail in on the gear selector other than reference to the selector rod connecting to the side of the gearbox. The Service Parts List book however does have a good plate FD, showing the auto box. the gate assembly appears to fix to the transmission tunnel rather than the chassis. hopefully the assembly comes out in one piece or I can move it enough to get to the fixings. Regards to all john

Hi to all, Car is a S2 Éclat auto, while putting the dash back in I have managed to pull the gear lever back through the gate and have pulled the two front screws that hold the gate down to the transmission tunnel, the gate now moves when I change gear. Any one got any details of what I can expect when I remove the two back screws and lift the gate up, do the fixing screws just go into the fibre glass or are there fixings of some type or other. How is the gear lever connected to the gear box, same manner as the manual or some sort of linkage affair. Best regards to all John

Hi mine are fitted cylinder to glass as well, cos that's the way they were before I changed them, old adage if its not broke don't fix it. regards to all John

Hi, question does it point straight down towards the floor of the car, if so it clips in behind the rubber door seal, helps keep the cant rail close to the top of the door. There are no fixings for the sun visors on the cant rail on any of my cars. John

Hi, any up date on this, I agree it sounds very tappity, did it quieten down when it warmed up. Which company in Maldon did you use. John

Hi to all, Thanks for the replies, have spent most of the day just going over every thing that I've done to the car, Duncan has helped loads, thanks Dunc. Hometune have suggested swapping over the two sets of carbs to see if the problem moves, however that might leave me with two cars with carb issues. I have decided to take off the inlet manifold and put on a new gasket. I have checked the spacer plates with the o rings in and they are all parallel with the correct gap, mounting bolts have also been checked and are correct. same for timing and correct set up of the timing belt. as I was not able to balance the carbs on Thursday after numerous attempts, that's when I was convinced it was mixture I called Hometune. ( I must confess a distant memory from over 40 years ago.). on Friday Hometune & I tried all the normal fixes, reversing HT leads on cylinders 2 & 3, with no apparent no change. checked correct orientation of the leads, etc. no issues found. We sprayed, easy start over all the carb to manifold joints, spacer plates and mounting bolts, with no effect. then sprayed the manifold to head joint from above, with no effect, but when spraying the inlet tube on no. 2 carb, low down just above the oil pump, there was a slight reaction and the engine raced for a second, this happened a couple of times but only on number 2 port, which suggests that's a good place to start. so bit puzzled as to why it effects No. 3 cylinder and it was not constant, ie every time we sprayed. Been thinking about that and it could be that the easy start was running down the block towards the back of the engine and we just couldn't see it. Going to have a play tomorrow and see if I can pinpoint the exact place of the leak, As the compression is good and constant across all four cylinders I have discounted issues with cams not closing fully, ( for now ) it was something we discussed on Friday, I did ask if it could be one tooth out on the cam shafts, but the man from Homerune say No. Puzzled of Caterham, John

Hi to All, Car is a 1981 S2 Elite. I have spent the last two weeks trying to get the engine to run smoothly and tick over, it sounds like a bag of nails, is lumpy and spits back through the carbs. After several goes at setting up and balancing the carbs, I finally gave up and called on a higher power in the form of Hometune. They, ( In the form of Peter ), spent 2 hrs. trying to get the thing running properly. I have read the book by Des Hammill, both edition 1 & 3, also the write up by Tim Engel and the Tuning Dellortos by The Apply Clan, I have set up the carbs on the Éclat with out any issues and I like to think I know what I'm doing. Hometune put an exhaust gas analyser on the car which told him its was running very lean almost on fresh air. lots of mucking about later, we came to the conclusion that the engine was only running on cylinders 1 & 4, 2 & 3 appear to be doing zilch. proved by taking off spark plug leads and no change to readings?, or sound of the engine on both plugs. pull off 1 or 4 and engine responds by change of tone and lumpiness of running. There is a four port manometer fitted and columns for 1 & 2 are both high, level and stable, approx. half way up the scale. 3 & 4 do not even register and only move on the overrun if the engine is revved. We put telltales on the all plugs and they are all firing and the analyser is not seeing unburnt hydro carbons in the exhaust. The car has never run that smoothly and was a total pig to get running in the first place, the carbs have been stripped and cleaned, jets checked against the spec in the manual. The result appears to show that there is a massive air leak on the vacuum side of the inlet manifold between cylinders 2 & 3, possible head gasket was the next thought, compression test shows all cylinders at 150 or thereabouts all close enough to say all ok. there is no water in the oil or mayo under the fill cap. Mixture jets started the day at 3 1/2 turns from closed and are currently sitting at approx. 12 turns or more to try and get a richer mixture. This is totally at odds to all the books which state 2 1/2 to 3 1/3 turns. Any one got any suggestions before I strip the carbs and manifold of. Any suggestions most welcome. John

Simon, Did mine a few months ago, fit to car first then window, you need a second pair of hands to hold it while you fit it, put gas struts on last. good luck with it. Out of interest did you have short rubber tubes over the studs when you took them off. They butt up to the rubber gasket that sits under the hinge. Best regards, John

There are two versions of voltage stabilisers, one is a small rectangular silver box like thing that lives at the rear of the instrument binnacle, this is a bimetal strip device and is most unlikely to make a bussing noise as its very slow to operate, it provides stable volts for the instruments and associated lights. Second one is a lot larger and is more cube like in appearance, cube is actually a relay to switch in and out the resistive circuit, it has a large smoothing capacitor attached to it and is located roughly in the middle of the car behind the central switch panel, this provides a stabilised voltage to the clock only. I have both types fitted to my éclat. but only one in both Elites. I think it depends on the type of clock in the car as to whether you need both. Hope this helps, John

Tom, If its not clicking its not pumping, the floats stop the carbs flooding. would guess that, as Simon said, its the pump just stuck up give it a light tap at the diaphragm end of the pump, if you got volts at the pump you could also clean the points. they operate due to the pressure differential either side of the diaphragm, which in turn is controlled by the inlet and outlet valves of the pump, its one of these valves that normally stick and prevent the pump working. I've had the problem on all three of my cars. You need to drive / start them regularly to stop them gumming up. Plus do all the normal bits, charge battery, make sure you got volts, coil still works etc. Regards to all. John

Hi to all, pdf of the vtr printout, if any one would like a scanned copy, let me know and I'll e mail one. Rewgards to all, John

Dave, I should have checked the link, however that's not where you need to go too, I have checked the vtr web site this morning and the article I was trying to link to has been removed, I will take a copy and put it in up here as a pdf. Thanks for letting me know. John

Hi, its from a triumph, its job is to warn of a pressure differential between the two brake circuits. Have a look at www.vtr.org/maintain/pdwa.shtml Its from the Vintage Triumph Register. Explains all you need to know. Regards John PS it does not Isolate a faulty brake circuit, its telling you there is a potential leak in one of your circuits. John