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Steve4012

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Everything posted by Steve4012

  1. Lubricating inside the rubber boots on the steering rack made my steering lighter and recentred the steering wheel after corners when it wouldn't before.
  2. I had this issue also on my Dry Sump Andy. My input shaft splines were worn (from circlip/ pilot bearing failure) so I bought another input shaft, expecting it to slide into the primary shaft without issue but it simply wouldn't go in as the primary shaft splines were damaged also! I had to have the gearbox rebuilt at the same time of the engine due to needing a replacement primary shaft. I hope you are luckier than I was and your primary shaft splines are OK.
  3. The new dust cover I got from SJ looks a fair bit larger than that one with probably an 8 to 10mm overhang on all sides of the gearbox opening. Great job with the spring, looks very neat.
  4. Andy, isn't the rubber cover on the clutch fork supposed to be on the outside of the bell housing?
  5. Not sure about the noise problem Andy, but I always take the 'box and engine out separately as I don't trust my hoist to lift both. It's not a difficult job. I remove discs, gearbox mounts and although I've read people twisting the gearbox slightly to manoeuvre it past the turbo I've never been able to do that and have always removed the turbo as well and turbo drain pipe to sump. The most difficult bit is actually sliding the gearbox backwards under the rear boot lip of the body and through the chassis hoop. A lot of pushing and heaving. You'll need to remove the gearbox mounts from the chassis also as the bolts that stick upwards stops the gearbox sliding back. Hope you get it sorted. Steve.
  6. Mine opened whilst driving as well but is now fixed. On the right hand latch, when the strikers on the tailgate push down when closing, it engages a small latch to keep the tailgate shut. There is a spring about 1 inch in length that keeps the latch in place and functioning. This spring had become slack on mine with the end of the spring stretched and allowed the latch to disengage with the vibration of driving. There is a black metal vertical support the spring attaches to by the right hand latch which you'll have to bend right over the tailgate to see. If the spring is slack, remove, tweak with pliers and refit and should be fine.
  7. Nice work. Hope it all comes together well 👍
  8. Yes that's what I was told by Mike. Oil presuure came up really quickly but also would surely have had some assembly lube on the bearings from the rebuild. Has yours been sitting idle for a while? If so I'd defer to the engine experts on the forum. I'm just passing on what I was told in my situation. Hope it helps.
  9. Phil, I've recently had my dry sump engine and gearbox rebuild by Mike at Lotusbits and I asked him the same restart question of removing spark and fuel and turn engine over until pressure built up. He said no, just start it, oil pressure will come up in a few seconds with the increased engine speed and will be fine. I did this and within about 2-3 seconds I had good oil pressure. Just passing on what he told me. Good luck.
  10. Yes, I get oil pressure showing on the gauge on my dry sump by just cranking. It will take more than a few seconds though especially if not been used for a while.
  11. To confirm the 8 sided chrome nut in Paul's post above from SJ is correct for an '81 turbo. I may have taken a chance with one off Ebay but decided to freshen up the whole area with new screen tape and wiper blade from SJ and with a repainted wiper arm it all looks nice and refreshed now. Thanks for the input gents.
  12. Andy/ Paul That's really helpful, many thanks both and I'll post back the solution.
  13. I already have the splined cap released. It's the nut as described above that's the problem. I found an old thread by @Paul Coleman who had the same issue. Paul, any chance you still have the replacement nut details?
  14. Hi all, I'm looking to repaint the black section of the front scuttle at the bottom of the windscreen on my '81 turbo. Trying to remove the wiper the securing nut is sized solid. It's the large 21mm (ish) nut. Anyone know the dimensions of this please before I grind it off as the parts diagram is non specific and struggling to find on SJ Sportscars site. Many thanks, Steve.
  15. Great well done. I did exactly the same with my fuel tanks. Perfectly sound so cleaned, painted and reinstalled with closed cell foam rather than the original sponge. The oil tank was grimy underneath too, obviously par for the course. Nice and satisfying once it's clean and tidy though.
  16. Thanks, yes it's silver Phil. I'm just reinstalling engine and gearbox after being rebuilt by Mike at Lotusbits. While that was happening it's had new paint so looking forward to having it all finished off and back on the road. I did the oil tank/ fuel tanks a few years ago and remember it being a pain to get in and out!
  17. Yes I did the same and kept it attached and withdrew with it on the tank. My pipe was quite badly gauged where it went through the body/ grommet so I bought a new one from sj. It's only a short length and was only £40ish if I remember correctly. I replaced the damaged cable, welded the bracket and put some rubber neoprene sheet between the tank and wiring for extra protection.
  18. Hi Phil, Yes the 90' elbow in the rear wheel arch just unscrews. The internal air filter 'ear' that the trunking fixes to was only sealed with silicone on mine and was easy to remove with just the few screws found once the outer ear was removed. Not attached to the window in any way. I can't remember if the oil tank is removable without taking that out. You're right to check the cabling under the oil tank. The metal bracket supporting the rear of the oil tank had broken on mine and the tank dropped down and rubbed through an ignition feed wire to the inertia switch. Cheers, Steve.
  19. Hi Dave. Very interesting as always. The black profile section underneath the sunroof hole. Did you make that as well or is it a flexible sheet that can be encouraged to form the correct roof curvature from underneath?
  20. Hi Brett. This maybe completely irrelevant but as you're struggling I thought I'd mention it. Is the voltmeter charge showing as low on the gauge when at the start of your journey? I say this because there is a second wire that should be attached to the alternator to 'excite it' into charging fully from the off. Mine had come off and the alternator wasn't charging enough until I revved beyond 3k revs or so and these extra revs then it kicked into action and it charged normally. I though it was temperature related as well but it was because I don't rev it hard from cold so it only solved itself when I revved higher after it had warmed up. Could this be some kind of low power problem (or surge)? Seems strange that your car runs worse with the correctly gapped plugs so could be related. Maybe it's lacking the juice to jump a spark .9mm across the plugs and it helps it at .7mm. Cheers, Steve.
  21. Many thanks for that explanation Dave. Learning lots from this and your other bodywork post which also looked terrific. Cheers, Steve.
  22. Hi Dave, the car is looking fantastic. I've been speaking to some people about a complete respray for my dry sump and they've suggested once sanded back to either gel coat or a well keyed secure surface an epoxy primer will be used to seal and then filler primer for flatting back before base coat. You seem to go filler primer (Upol reface?) on the sanded surface and fully flat then primer. I presume it's ok to use either method and both would achieve similar results? Many thanks, Steve.
  23. 6 months later and realised I neglected to update ths thread. The oil analysis showing no coolant in oil was great news, I put the car back to standard .40 idle jets and got the car running really nicely. I've done over 1000 miles between MOT's which is way more than I normally do and really enjoyed using the car a lot late summer/autumn. I'm now forcibly off work again (Covid) so thought I'd get a task done that's been niggling me. I should have put a new gearbox input shaft in the car when I had it all apart a couple of years ago but didn't and my one was a bit worn on the splines. Not bad but not great either. So I've ordered a new one and have started getting ready for gearbox off. One of the items that has to come off is the turbo oil drain pipe and on the dry sump that means all the engine oil will exit the engine! No problem, new oil and filter won't hurt as it's been about 700 miles. I have found though that the oil looks a lot older than the 6 months and 700 miles it actually is. It looks mid brown colour like cold coffee and still has a hint of fuel smell which surprised me with standard idle jets and the idle screws set to a fairly standard 3 full turns out. Need to check @Lotusfabsuggestion again about the needle valves seating correctly as I really want the oil to stay in a healthier state for a relatively short time/ mileage. Will post back...
  24. That looks like it. Here's the link from Ebay UK. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/123858843505
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