ragingfool35

well i bought him lunch which certainly didn't cover my debt. He wouldn't take any money. Yeah he was around 22 yr old and sitting in the shop office waiting on his dad to finish some task on his Esprit. Alex was visiting his parents from college. His dad told me he had just gotten out of Marines. I figured if anyone was up to the task of removing the carpet, it would be a young Marine! He didn't even complain or swear during the process. Me on the other hand...a constant stream of grunts and curses! His quiet dedication to the job put me to shame and changed my attitude during the effort. Sometimes misery really does love company

LOL my buddy's son was visiting the club shop when i started this task. i hadn't met him until i asked him to help me remove the carpet. It took both of us 4 hrs. I feel like he saved my life in battle. it was such a bitch of a job, i would jump in front of a bullet for him for his help that day!

although i don't have recent experience with them, i have received bad parts from the usual retailers, including bushings. Remember that the retailers also seek alternate sources and these are often not reliable these days. Personally experienced examples are: upper ball joints with non-parallel bolt holes, Lotus-stock vinyl stickers and foam weather strip that disintegrated when removed from the packaging, rubber bushes that were probably 20+ years old, well past its shelf life, poly bushes that crumbled within 3000 miles, v belts from local autoparts store that all broke after 2 weeks, control arm studs 10mm too short, the list goes on. These days i am surprised when something does work, instead of when it doesn't. Send them back and maybe try another retailer.

i recently removed mine. it wasn't much fun. it was working fine but I didn't like it...too 70's looking. PM me if you are interested in it. cheers

wow. for future reference there is this http://www.darkside.ca/tech/CL77-3-402.pdf

Tom Mieczkoski (mostly on LotusTalk forum) has a few sets reconditioned

wow they are no longer available....Tom Mieczkoski probably has some used ones. i think i gave him 2 from me. I made this in 2014 to utilize an aftermarket regulator on mine. fuel rail adapter.PDF

the fuel pressure does bleed away after sitting for a while. There is a 2 (or 3) second fuel pump activate each time the ignition switch is turned to the ON position for this reason. wait for the fuel pump to finish before cranking, see if that helps

he does good work. i rebuilt my engine (and just about the entire car) at his shop with his help. with the engine fully assembled and hanging on the chain about to be lowered into the car, i found a single leftover part. i showed him and immediately he knew where it was supposed to go, lol. Are you planning to disassemble your engine and assess all the damage? Welch advised that i would be surprised at the amount of wear and he was right. new exhaust valves, 16 new seats, new liners and optional new pistons. new turbo and exhaust manifold, new flywheel, clutch. anyway ended up $16k in parts but happy with the results. certainly more than the $5k i budgeted. Don't know what he is asking but that is my somewhat extreme cost perspective. hope you get it resolved! there are 4 race engine machine shops within stone's throw of my house that could repair it; i'm sure you can find something similar local to you. just aint cheap. cheers

Tom Mieczkoski probably has a rebuilt engine for sale

i put grease on the bolts/studs at assembly and clean the threads prior to installing the nuts

JAE in USA is sourcing AN bolts for the suspension. That seems an appropriate choice to me

its been a long time since i've looked at a black belt. I think the cross section of the blue belt is thicker and may be fiber reinforced, meaning all things being equal, the belt will undergo less deformation from the same tensile force. A buddy of mine at work did some development on the blue belts; i'll ask him the differences. so the engine gets hot and the distance between the crank and cam sprocket increases slightly from thermal expansion, increasing the tension on the belt. that's pretty straight forward. what the belt undergoes is out of my education, but if the blue belt is indeed less elastic then for the same cold tension, the hot (engine) tension will be higher for the blue belt. too bad the Esprit doesn't have a spring-loaded tensioner. that would solve a couple of issues. Tim Engel posted some comments on the blue belt cold tension. do a search or PM him for a more detailed discussion

i am still doing mine. getting the frame aligned with the window slide track such that the glass goes up and down without binding AND getting the frame snug at the top corner with the body shell hasn't been easy