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nic996

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Everything posted by nic996

  1. Its a manual tensioner. It’s owner error. And a fresh engine rebuild. Albeit 6 years ago. But it’s only just going now 😳
  2. Thanks for the input. The exhaust is bloody loud! Tunnel tested today. My first born was very pleased and he likes all things very loud! Perhaps a little over tensioned then. Thanks again!
  3. Hello all. Merry Christmas first of all! I haven’t had my car on the road for long and I have no comparisons but the cam belt is fairly loud. It whines like a supercharger in the first bmw minis. (Sorry, it’s the only comparison I have.) Is this normal? Or is it a little tight? I did the tension by measuring frequency. cheers nic.
  4. @jonwat fwd gearboxes have a solid input shaft through the entire gearbox so they don’t need to be supported at the crank end. @AndyPG the engine was supplied reconditioned without the bearing. The old one was still in the old engine when it was exchanged. @910Esprit advice duly noted. Thanks.
  5. Publicly shaming myself here but I found the issue. A lesson to other diy mechanics. Having only ever fitted clutches to fwd cars, I didn’t know about the spigot bearing and neglected to fit one. The clutch has been bouncing around a bit. Luckily the gearbox is fine and only my pride is damaged. Problem solved. Thanks for the suggestions. nic.
  6. Yes. I’m inclined to agree that there’s a problem with the gearbox.
  7. Exactly right. Pulling away in second produces the same problem as well I just found out.
  8. I should add that I ruled out linkage mal-adjustment by disconnecting the linkage and putting into first gear by hand at the gearbox end. Made no difference. Still grinds before it gets off the line. Also I just tried to pull away in second gear and it’s the same problem.
  9. I checked and adjusted the clutch. It’s no better. The thing is, it only happens when the car is at a standstill and I give anything more than 1500rpm. And it only happens when the clutch bite is found. Otherwise it goes into gear no problem. It’s as if the gears are not meshing properly when the car is not rolling but fine when underway.
  10. The clutch did cross my mind. The clutch hose is already ss. I will have another go at bleeding the clutch and adjusting the arm. Thanks for the input.
  11. Hi all, i have a strange issue with a freshly rebuilt gearbox. When I pull away in first or reverse I get a crunch unless I’m extremely cautious with the clutch. Otherwise it works well once underway with nice clean gearshifts. I thought syncros but there is no reverse syncro and the effect is identical. Can anyone make any suggestions? cheers nic.
  12. Ok guys. Confirmation on the master cylinder. For Bendix equipped S3s and early Stevens cars(85 to 92) The OEM part number is: 251611021C (fits a t2, t25 and t3 vw van/bus) The part number is got is: 1161100700 (I think made by Brax but the oem number is good enough to get the correct part) There are 4 outlets for brake pipes. I bought an m10x1.0 blanking plug. Total price was under €40. I got it from Amazon and it arrived next day. It was a considerable time and cost saving over the usual specialists. Less than half the price and it’s exactly the same part. Hope someone finds this helpful. Thanks to Pete for confirmation of the correct brake fluid too. Nic.
  13. Hi all, the brakes on my post 85 S3 have failed without turning a wheel. The pedal goes to the floor with no leaks and the fluid in the reservoir is spilling over when I reinsert the reservoir cap. I suspect the master cylinder is at fault. The master cylinder is a brand new item from SJ but has been fitted to the car for a couple of years. (The restoration being painfully slow). I trawled through the forum to find out if there is a cross reference part and which fluid to use. There seems to be varying answers from a VW Transporter (T2 or T5) to a Ford Capri for the part itself and Dot-3, Dot-4 and Dot-5.1 fluid. (There does seem to be consensus that Dot-5 is to be avoided). Can anyone provide a definitive answer to the above fluid and cross reference parts ? I’m fairly certain that the master cylinder has failed so no need to reply to that unless it’s a common issue that has been experienced and can be rectified without fitting a new master cylinder or replacing the seals. It would be good to have one solid reply so that it is easy for others to search in the future. Any help, as always, much appreciated. Nic.
  14. Lhd and rhd esprits go for similar money here in Germany if they go at all (according to what i observe in the national advert websites anyway) and they are incredibly rare. Two reasons why. They were never officially sold on mainland Europe and people are frightened of them. I have looked at ads for all esprits and they seem to stay there for a very long time. I suppose you could argue easily against buying one as 911s are plentiful and there are garages on every corner that know them inside out. You have to be able to maintain an esprit yourself and partial or full restoration is definitely a diy job. Again the issue certainly in Munich is that people mostly live in apartments and using a garage as a workshop is nigh on impossible so you are forced to either, buy a house in the suburbs (Germans generally rent) that has a garage, rent a workshop (expensive and rarer than an esprit, or have it repaired/restored by a professional. There are numerous places here that will restore and Porsche or BMW. A lotus? Not really. If I didn’t have the skills I’d probably buy a 911 myself but when the sun comes out I can guarantee my car will be turning heads amongst the sea of Porsches!!
  15. Well it seems this saga was not quite finished. Another little drama to add. . I finally got some temporary plates and took it for the first drive. A very short 2 minutes to the petrol station and back. By the time I returned, reverse has gone again. Plus the added stress of an appointment at the Dyno tomorrow to get the engine set up in order to pass the emissions for the TÜV (MOT) on Friday. By luck, I spotted the problem straight away. I have made a modification that seems to have permanently fixed it too. Over a month of messing about and extreme frustration and the problem was diagnosed and fixed in twenty minutes. The problem is that there is a sleeve over the crossgate cable that slides up and down the cable and leaves the cable exposed where it passes through the gearbox mount. Where it’s exposed, it buckles and effectively shortens the cable and prevents the cable from functioning properly. I found an extra nut, welded a small washer on the end and screwed onto the remaining thread on the gearbox mount point. It nicely retains the sleeve and keeps the cable enclosed. Job done and all gears functioning well. I have attached some pics of the fix. The welding is rougher than a badgers backside as it was 10pm and I didn’t want to go crazy with the grinder and really upset the neighbours. I would say I will do it properly in the future but it’s robust and i know it will be left as is 😄 i forgot to take a picture of the final assembly but the photos should be enough to show how it works. Now I expect somebody to pipe up and tell me that’s how it should have been in the first place and I had a piece missing all along. Either way it’s works...... finally. Saga over. I hope.
  16. You also still not finished rick! We will be retired and wearing water tight trousers by the time these bloody cars are finished. 😄
  17. Update time. Fingers crossed I seem to have got it set up. Warm and up and down the driveway with no grinding or jumping out. I changed all the hydraulics and this was definitely not the issue. What i did do different was a small adjustment of the main gear rod. It was a little short. After adjusting that the cross gate cable adjustment was done again and success. I wound the cable so it was at its shortest and I couldn’t get reverse. I wound it out half a turn at a time until reverse engaged again. It engaged quite smoothly so I stuck with that position and it seems to have done the trick!! What an effort that was. A very fine line between it being correct and all over the place. Thanks for all the tips and comments. Nic.
  18. The new master and slave cylinders turned up last night and I managed to fit them this evening. I adjusted the pedal exactly by the book also. Unfortunately it’s past 8pm now and my neighbours have small kids. It would be a little unsociable to drive the car up and down the drive which runs adjacent to their house. Anyway, it seems I have gained a couple of mm of clutch travel at most and now have about 16mm-16.5mm. A relatively long way from 19.5mm. The question is, how critical is this measurement? I’m really starting to wonder if the issue is the clutch itself.
  19. Thanks for the advice Steve. I’m still waiting for the parts to arrive but will make sure all the measurements are taken into account the pushrod for the mc is long gone it’s a case of adjusting the new push rod to make sure the pedal has the free play and travel required Changes in the photoshop are subtle. Grey along the lower part of the car. Mine is all white for now but the original S2 as you will know has black paint along the sill (rocker) and the front spoiler. My boss (who is a notable car designer) advised me to do the lower part darker as it emphasises the wedge a little more. And he is right. I didn’t think I would like it but it really works. Also the Centre of the front rim is painted black and the suspension is lower. The guy who photoshopped it for me didn’t like the wheel Centre black and stopped short of doI guess the rear wheel but I like it. My car is currently sitting ridiculously high so I am hoping to achieve the better ride height. The rest of the changes will be paint and vinyl on the lower edge.
  20. I just read this thread and wanted to add to my own experience. I had exactly the same issues but with a different outcome. I have an Ecu and throttle bodies. Many moons ago whilst firing up for the engine first time I was advised that the ecu may not be working because the dash bulb for the battery. I was advised to swap it to an LED and this did the trick. A couple of years (😳) down the line, it would appear that the LED swap was coincidence as the engine fires up no problem with a conventional bulb (the ecu has been adjusted since as it was running way too lean). Low and behold, having swapped back to the original bulb, the alternator is once again charging. So now I have ditched most of the LEDs and learned my lesson the hard way. At least the new alternator is clean and shiny. 🙄 ps. Thanks to Andy Warne you absolute genius for mentioning the potential LED issue one page 1 of this thread. Reading your input was the light bulb moment.... groan..... I’ll get me coat 😬 😉
  21. No there isn’t. There’s a main dealer but they have only been here for a handful of years and there are not many lotus specialists in Germany. A colleague has an s1 Elise and he said they weren’t knowledgeable. He takes his car to his native France for any major work! Talking of whom, he was kind enough to photoshop a few changes cosmetically to the car today and i am fully fired up again! My boss’s boss suggested the changes and I wouldn’t argue with him. He’s been a car designer for twenty five years. I’ll take a break tonight and hopefully the new hydraulics arrive and I will get stuck in again. If there’s one thing I am it’s determined, otherwise known as stubborn!! I will not be defeated... I’ve attached the photoshopped pic to keep the thread interesting. The blackout on the wheels was supposed to be on the rear as well. It’s a work in progress.
  22. Ok that’s another point to look at. I believe the clutch is still an issue that I needs to be resolved first however. I think it is not opening enough which would make the gears hard to get due to clutch drag.. There seems to be too little travel on the fork. Apparently it should be 30mm according to a thread on PistonHeads. I have only about 15mm of travel. I found the answer finally to which hole on my clutch pedal is for the clutch and which the brake. For info it is the upper hole for clutch and lower for brake. Predictably mine was wrong. I swapped it and the pedal is much lighter now but the travel distance is hardly affected. Barely 1mm . So next stop is a new master cylinder. I have (if memory serves correct)a Land Rover mc. It’s probably the wrong part and hopefully it’s not giving enough travel. The pedal is short by about 20mm of travel. I suspect that will only give me a couple of mm more clutch fork throw but who knows, it might be enough. The adjustment on the cross gate seems to be very fine indeed so finger crossed. It arrives in a day or two so I will report back then.
  23. I’m back at it again going through each issue one at a time. So with the clutch throw I am only getting about 80mm of pedal travel. It could be the master cylinder is wrong but also there are two holes on the pedals. One marked b and one marked c for brake and clutch respectively. Stupidly as I now realise, many years ago when I refurbed the pedals I thought it would be a good idea to paint the pedals with wrinkle paint (I just discovered the stuff and got a little over enthusiastic). So which one is which? At the moment I have the brake pedal set to the uppermost hole and the clutch to the lower one. I just want to make double sure every potential issue is covered. The brakes seem to work well and is set to the upper one so a fair assumption would be that the clutch pedal is the lower hole thanks for any replies. Nic.
  24. Thanks for the replies guys. To answer your questions First off the reverse switch. I had a new switch with a spacer and to make sur I put back the original switch. All was good. I’m not sure about the pivot link. I’ll check it out. The master cylinders and slave cylinder sizes I am not sure about. I think the master cylinder doesn’t matter as far as I know as long as the rod is correct. The rod comes with the cylinder so presumably it’s correct. The slave cylinder is for a Land Rover. Perhaps it’s wrong? I don’t know. I guess a smaller bore will give a longer throw? who knew this would be so complex.
  25. I know this topic has been done to death but having read everything there is to read on the subject in the forum and further afield I’d like some advice nevertheless if possible. The background first. Complete vehicle rebuild including the gearbox with new CW & pinion. Gear shift assay was never removed and the crossgate cable is original. The rear part was upgraded for the SJ spherical joint and the clutch master cylinder, slave cylinder and clutch itself are all brand new. The red hydraulic hose was replaced with a braided item and the gearbox oil is fresh. First of all I have the no reverse issue. It’s fine cold but as soon as the car is warm and by warm I mean within 5 or 10 minutes of idling, it jumps out and is difficult to engage etc. and i can only drive up and down a longish driveway. It’s not even been on the open road yet. The engine is not running well at the moment (it’s booked in for a rolling road session next week to set up the ecu and injection) and idles sometimes at 2500revs at which point I can’t even get it into reverse or first. The gearbox oil is new. Sometimes when I’m reversing and press the clutch then a cacophony of grinding and all sorts of nonsense erupts and the clutch won’t disengage. And so to the second issue. According to a thread on piston heads a seemingly knowledgeable person reckons there should be 29.5mm of clutch travel (the thread may have been referring to a Stevens car) I’m not even achieving half of that. The pedal was adjusted correctly today with no effect. I tried to adjust the crossgate cable and had limited success. I can get in reverse with the engine off and get the car going but it quickly jumps out of gear. After two attempts to adjust out the issue, first gear then got tricky albeit only when the engine was racing. At normal idle it was ok. Sorry for the epic length of the post but I have been at this issue for two weeks now and I feel utterly defeated to the point that I’m considering selling the car. Thanks for reading nic.
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