Drawfiler

My 78 eclat is wired to the 'RHD non federal wiring diagram' this shows a 8amp fuse in the wire to the fuel pump, does this exist? If so where is it as my pump won't go. It is not stuck contacts, there are no volts on the connector on the pump. My second question is, have any of you replaced the pump with a solid state one, if so which and did you need a reducing valve to not flood the carbs. Peter

I think it is unlikely to be metal, I suspect hard carbon deposits from burnt oil. If it was metal, you would have heard or felt it ! I have seen this before in similar situations, usually where lubrication is inadequate.

When my carbs flood the fuel comes out of the trumpet and not the body, however with the alternatives now fitted, I would have a look at ignition timing, that is assuming that the plug leads are all in the right order! i would also check for induction leaks perhaps from the vac pipe for the headlights.

A bit of an update, I have stripped both my engine and the used 2.2 from Lotusbits, had the 2l head skimmed, fitted new exhaust valves, exchanged the cams and valve springs, had 2.2 crank ground, fitted new rings to 2.2 pistons and started to get it all together. For those about to do this, there is a lot of help available from Lotusbits and this forum, I have a couple of additional tips that may be of help. I was. 'starting again' with valve shimming, and with two heads worth of shims, I got some egg boxes, numbered all the depressions in them and carefully measured my shims with a micrometer, I put them in order of increasing size and made a list of their thicknesses. i set up one cam with the thinnest shims working from one end and measured the gaps. I was then able to pick the best fit from my collection of shims to get the gaps right reasonably easily. I ended up with some gaps that I couldn't get to with my shims and bought some too thick ones and ground one side to fit on a surface grinder. i appreciate that you may not have access to a grinder but should be able to find someone with one, it speeded things up and saved me buying lots of extra shims. i bought one of those little magnets on a stick to pick off the washers and nuts each time I took the carrier off, they also went into an egg box so I was certain that I hadn't left any behind! imwould also advise that you stick the studs into the head with some adhesive as they can work their way out with repeated dismantling. i found one valve that wouldn't come right and discovered that the depression in the top of the spring retainer was deeper than the shim was thick. Rather than take the head off to replace the retainer, I put some grease round it and gently filed it down in situ, wiped the grease off and so collected the filings. i found that the oil pump on my 2.2 engine was slightly different from the 2 one and I had to swap them over to be able to fit the alternator as the pulley was out of line. The power steering brackets are different on the two engines and I am off to Lotusbits to find one that fits properly as the 2.2 one is only attached by a single bolt! so I am getting things done at long last and will list progress if there is any!

I had this problem and replaced the seal only to have it leak again, this was because the bearing in the front of the diff was worn and allowed the shaft to wobble about. Only solved by taking diff outof car for major surgery, I bought a replacement instead.

My engine is out right now so I can't get any dimensions to do this, if anyone has got a kit installed and is happy to take dimensions, I can do the rest.

I am happy to help with development and future manufacture of a kit in my own workshop, I have the machines to do it. However I don't want to steal other people's work, it seems that the project has stalled just now so judging by the large number of viewings it is well worth reviving.

Just a word on timing, I had a breakdown when the clamp bolt allowed the spring to push the dizzy out of engagement. i slackened off the clamp bolt and fired up the starter motor with a hut wire from the battery bypassing the switch, rotated the dizzy until it engaged and then twisted it until the engine fired and ran. This got me home until I could retire properly. since this incident I just do the same when I have the dizzy off.

I understand that the engine will run with odd cams also the inlet and exhaust can be interchanged. this leads me to think that the problems lie elsewhere, you have changed the cam sprockets, just ensure that they are the right way round, i.e. You have the exhaust marking facing out on the pulley on that cam but just check the key to keyway alignment on the crank, itis just possible that the keyway has widened so allowing all the timing to be late. This has happened to me on another vehicle. i am assuming that the ignition and carbs are all ok. peter

So I have saved up and bitten the bullet, I have bought a 2.2'lit engine from LB and stripped it so I can get a set of cams, valve springs, crank, pistons large sump etc. The rest of the 2 lit bits will be swapped over along with new exhaust valves, liners, reground crank, new shells belt tensioner, later cam belt and new pulleys etc. I must say that the advice I got from LB and Mike in particular is a great help, they are prepared to spend time going over the alternatives so you get the engine you want at a price you can (just) afford. So I now gave to set to and make one engine out of two before the winter comes ( if it ever went away) Peter

I will be buying some rebuild parts from Lotusbits so will get confirmation from Mike Taylor at the same time. I will put a note on here to clarify things.

TAR, I am talking about a different car, sorry for confusion

I have my cams off the car and found that the inlet has one groove i.e. No one D type and the exhaust has two ie No five E type. Although the car ran ok before I stripped the engine, should I change anything?

Thanks, I will have another look when it is all together again

I normally park my Eclat backwards into the garage, I have now got it the other way round and with the engine out. looking from the rear I can see that LH near, passenger side is lower than the right by about 1inch. My check was to measure from tyre to to bottom of wheel arch. I jacked the car up and could find no obvious problems, the uncompressed springs are the same length. I then put blocks under the wheels and lowered the car down so the weight was on the blocks. The springs were still equal lengths to within an eighth of an inch, I can see no problems with the chassis, cross member straight, top spring mounts OK, all was waxoiled from new so no corrosion. It almost as though I need to pack the body up,from the chassis on that side! What measurements can I take and what else should I look at? thanks for your help.