moriniman1

Driver Seat rubber has finally perished and I’m almost sitting on the floor! I can repair it with rubber webbing but wondering if anyone knows the origin of the seat. If it’s MGB then Moss Europe are not to far from me and I can take my old one down as a pattern.

Thanks Mike and Don. I’ll try 20w 50 engine oil first and hopefully third gear will be easier to select as its the lost useful gear for my set up

What oil should I use in the Getrag 265? I refreshed it with EP80 going back to the days where all my parents’ cars worked perfectly with Ep oil . Fast forward to 2019 using EP80 in a Getrag is a disaster , requiring more effort to select gears even when warmed up. some forums recommend engine oil , hypoy, ATF and BMW forums recommending Redline MT.... all for the same gearbox If youre running a Getrag 265 is appreciate your view on the oil you are using cheers simon

Finally , the fans work. The culprit was a loose connector on the back of the ignition switch! Not that obvious when adopting the lotus position , but easy when the dash is out. Thanks for all your help, Car been out of use for a year so next steps are to change fluids , hook up electronic speedo and get MOT. Who knows , I might even get to the Lotus Festival in September!

Hi Clive , yep found the 4th wire - slate grey rather than orange, the only wire left unnacounted for as everything else working fine. No voltage though so will have to remove dash again and trace it through to the failure point. Strangely , the wire colours and plug configuration ( connectons 1-5) concur with a S1 "Federal With Aircon" diagram rather than the S1 RHD non aircon version I have in my manual. How's your dashboard work progressing?

Didnlt think of that to be honest , assumed as there was no evidence of melting I just tested with a Multimeter . There's 5 connections on the back but only 3 wires , black ground , then yellow/slate for one speed and yellow only for second speed. Will check. Thanks.

Hi, Does anyone know if the heater motors have a relay and if so where Lotus wold have placed it? I don;t have much faith in the wring diagrams as the only wires colours and switch configuration which aligns to my car is for an air conditioned model rather than the non aircon model Bottom line is that one of my heater motors burned out after I'd replaced my clutch cable back in March , blowing the fuse , so I went through the painful process of replacing both motors with refurbished items. These work which work fine with direct current but not off the switch suggesting my old motor may have burned out a relay or a switch. Switch works fine so must be another component. Wiring diagram suggests a relay exists , but can only see indicator relay and hazard relay on the pedal box. Must be some others I can't see such as headlamp and heater rear window... Cheers Simon

Hi all, Yet another clutch cable failure on the Elite after only 1500 miles ; this time with a new genuine Lotus cable and replacing the nylon pulley wheel with an alloy one. What seems to be happening is that Inner cable wears because it is not entering the outer cable at the pedal box squarely. There's no way to adjust the pulley height to compensate unless I feel like bending the mounting brackets holding the pulley which will probably end in disaster. Are there any successful alternatives ? I had a chat with Mike Taylor about using an Excel pedal box but it involves an awful lot of cutting and re fibreglassing so have eliminated this option I've also considered fitting push type a master cylinder inside the car but the pedal travel would be too little. Still thinking about this option. Finally , I also saw on the forum that someone had replaced the pulley with a sprocket and run a small chain from the pedal to the inner cable. Any ideas would be appreciated and hopefully I can get some use out of the car this year instead of leaving it as a street ornament! Regards, Simon

Thanks Paul. I'll consider that. Was it a difficult to remove the servo? I'm thinking the instrument binnacle will have to come out as a starter for ten.

Last year I replaced my rear diff and took the opportunity to fit new wheel cylinders and a new link pipe but ended up swapping one problem for another... lovely diff, taller gearing but the brakes had almost gone! They were never sharp but the pedal was almost to the floor & the servo clicked and then hissed like a Cobra on acid before the brakes took effect. Since then , I have systematically been through my braking system and fitted new shoes , rebuilt front calipers and fitted a Landrover master cylinder (NRC8690 with a 5mm spacer plate) to try to solve my brake problem. The pedal is solid but takes a huge pedal effort to pull up. Flexi pipes are the braided type so no concerns about old rubber pipe bulging. This leaves the servo and the price of a reconditioned one leaves me looking for an alternative. Landrover has been mentioned before and I think a 227mm type 50 servo (series 2 & 3) is a possibility ; the repair kits have the same reference number so perhaps there are only minor external differences. http://www.island-4x4.co.uk/brake-servo-8391-type-227mm-britpart-stc2878-p-1909.html Has anyone had success fitting a servo from another car albeit with some small adjustments? I know brakes are a key safety item but I'm loathed the spend nearly £300 without exhausting other alternatives! Simon

Just seen this post, not only me who had to grind off the trunnion bolt. Smothered the new bolt and sleeve in copperslip. Replacement made a big difference to steering. We'll see what happens next time

Looks good.

Hi Paul, Do you have any photos you could post up. Changing diff over beginning of next month so ideal opportunity to modify. Cheers, Simon

tend to agree on the light dashboard. I bought a retrimmed cream leather / vinyl interior from an abandoned project and experimented with vinyl binnacle just to confirm my worst fears on screen reflection. ... it was a pain even on bright winter days. Personally , I like the look of the black vinyl dash.