Trunnion 74

Hi Nick, What Mike said. For the chassis mounting bolts SJ sell these. AX75B2259F Roland

That's amazing Chris! . I am in the process of putting an update together for Mr Evans, I'll send him a copy of the picture. Thank you for sharing it

is it Lord Lucan?

Why you sad Tom?

This is what’s inside the smaller 2” gauges. No white just blue, and only round the sides The faces are different, and care needs to be taken when removing the internals so as not to bend the needle. There are two parts to them and the top can be levered off. Taking the cap/s off makes it a lot easier when you come to refit the internals. There is a white reflecting band around the top inner. The back of the base has some white paint on and the back of the cap has the blue again. End results Rev counter and speedo The speedo trip reset cable has been replaced as I managed to break the end of mine when I was liberating it from the dashboard. Don’t try and disconnect it from the speedo from the outside. The business end of the cable has a Hexagonal pocket which sits over a hex ended rod inside the speedo, as you remove the internals it will disconnect from the pocket. If you then twist the cable through 45deg (outside) then press the two clips on the inside it will pop out. Time has not been kind to the faces, the markings are degrading and showing some smudging of the text. Caused by damp?? I have not been able to find any replacements so I decided to get them clean by gently dry wiping them. Sort of worked, they are not as good as I would have liked but then the car is 46 years old! When refitting the glass there is no O ring, just the one for the bezel and the dash. Onto the next job. The air-con Unit!

Rev counter can fresh white paint on inside. The one on the right is the speedo one, with old white and blue paint. The blue is there to give a more neutral white glow, apparently. Rev counter can white and blue with internals in place. I managed to track down new seals. Available from Ebay, LOTUS ELAN & EUROPA instrument refurbishment seals (14). Long fat one is for the locking ring, thin round one is for between the reflector and glass, fat round one is for outside the case between bezel and dash. Before and after. With dash seal on Before and after, face. When putting the locking ring on you need to compress the glass against its O ring and the locking ring seal against the glass, before you can twist it on. Takes some doing!

Work on the Rev counter continues, more on that soon. I decided to have a look at the side/headlight twist and pull switch. Which, after 40 odd years, wasn’t a smooth as it once was. On closer inspection it was apparent that some of the metal parts were rusty. As it’s a mechanical switch I did contemplate just dropping it in a bath of Deox-C to remove the rust. But... I couldn’t resist taking it apart to see how it worked! The picture shows all the parts that make up the switch. If you are going to take it apart I would recommend you do it in a bag! There is a VERY small ball bearing that you do not want to lose, ask me how I know! This is how it works In the case there is a spring that sits horizontal to the shaft on which the ball bearing sits. On the brass rod you can see three recesses. Two are vertical, one horizontal. When the switch is in the “in” position the ball sits in the horizontal recess (bottom right) when you twist to switch the sides on it moves to the bottom vertical one. At the same time the metal cam rotates on the inside across its shelf and sits over a gap. When you pull the switch for headlights the ball engages with the top recess and pulls the cam down which moves a brass collar (which sits astride a plastic holder) down to make full contact with the three legs of the switch. First thing to do is remove the knob. The knob is held in place by a push pin. Look at the knob and you will see a small hole. Stick a small screwdriver in and depress the metal button at the bottom of the hole whilst simultaneously pushing the knob off the switch. Then you need to remove the small nut off the end of the rod remove the washers, collar, holder and cam then carefully remove the brass rod not forgetting the ball bearing. Then give everything a thorough clean. There is a knack to putting this back together. This is the method I used (others are available). Take the switch and hold it vertical, contacts upper most. Take the brass rod and orientate the two vertical recesses approx. with the spring. Insert the rod so the top is just behind the spring. Take the ball and place it in the hole so it just rests on the top of the rod. Gently manoeuvre the ball so it rests on the spring. Holding the switch and rod like this in one hand, with the other hand take a small jeweller’s screwdriver and depress the ball on its spring. As you do this gently push (using the desk as your third hand) the rod over the spring. You will hear/feel it slide into the first recess; you need the ball in the second recess. Once you have done this the rod will sit there happily. DON’T be tempted to pull the rod back and forth or you will pull it out along with the ball! Now the other bits, first is the cam. If you look at the rod you can see a threaded bit at the top, then a shoulder then another shoulder just above the top recess. The cam needs to sit on this bottom shoulder, which, if the switch is in the “in “position places the lug on its shelf. It will go on but will need pushing past the spring legs of the terminals. I used a pair of pliers to get it down there. Next is the plastic carrier followed by the brass collar (there will be witness marks on it so you get it in the same position as before) then the fibre washer, spring washer and finally the small nut. Now you can have a play with the switch! And marvel at how smooth the action is.

Hi Rich I would be interested in a full set for my Elite please (5) Roland

Isn't it funny how looking at somthing can spark a long distant memory. Looking at the first picture the needle on the radio is at 1500m Longwave. That't the frequency that BBC radio 2 transmitted on in the.....70s!! Think your car is trying to tell you something Al. Roland

Got plenty of Deox-C it's good stuff. Whereabouts in Nottingham have you had the re-plating done?

Update. This is what I've been calling the beauty ring that sits inside the gauge. I was puzzled as to why it was painted white (poorly) on the inside. Turns out it is actually called a reflector. It helps to reflect the light from the bulb back onto the dial.

That's a good question Pete. I could also just lacquer it or give it a coat of Bilt hamber Dynax S50 wax, I haven't decided yet. The first thing i need to do is decide how best to remove the rust without destroying the two stickers on it.

Happy new year everyone! I have started to re-furb my dash clocks so I thought I would put a how to up for those not sure how they come apart. I have used the rev counter as the guinea pig. As you can see it has suffered over the years. The outer ring is less than perfect and the case is in need of some rust removal. The rest of the clocks are in a similar state. First thing to do is remove the metal brackets Now you need to tackle the front ring. On the back of the ring you will/should see a rubber ring, remove this. Looking at the back of the ring you will see some small tabs, the ring is a bayonet fitting. Clean all around the edge before you tackle the next bit. The object is to now loosen each tab. To achieve this place a small screwdriver behind each tab and give a little twist. You do not need to bend the tab up, you just need to loosen. Go round each one in turn. After a few goes round the ring try to twist the ring towards the release pocket. If it won’t budge keep going round loosening the tabs. BE PATIENT! It can take time to loosen enough to twist it, this one took me 20mins! If the ring is refusing to budge due to rust spray a little WD round the edge. When ready carefully twist the ring round to the pockets and remove the outer ring. Once the ring is removed you will see (in my case) a very old, hard mastic/sealant Start to remove the old sealant and with your small screwdriver carefully chase out any remaining around the edge of the glass. If you look at the pic below you can see the edge of the glass another edge, which at the time I thought was an inner case and the outer case edge showing the ring release pocke. Now for the removal of the glass. The idea is to walk the glass out as it sits on an O ring. Using the screwdriver carefully ease round the glass edge; you may need to go round a few times. As you go round you will hear/see it start to lift. Don’t be tempted to shove your screwdriver under to leaver it off! We don’t want to be searching for a replacement glass because we were to ham fisted in the first place. Do we? Mission accomplished! Once the glass and O ring have been removed you will notice another black ring that sits between the face of the dial and the top edge of the case. . Look at the edge of the case and you will see another edge, the one I thought was an inner case, it isn’t. This is the beauty ring that finishes off the inside of the clock. There is a small gap. Carefully go round the case and walk out this beauty ring. Take your time. O ring and beauty ring removed Now to remove the inner workings. Place the front outer ring back on, no need to twist it back on, just place in the pockets. Turn the clock upside down. There are 4 screws on the back two brass (long) and two silver (short), remove them. There is a plate and then a black rubber gasket that sits between the bottom of the workings and the back of the case. You can see some of it on the right side. The workings should now just gently drop. If they won’t move you may also need to remove the two top hat washers the long screws went through and also gently press to release the rubber gasket/plate that you can see. Once you are sure it’s free turn the assembly back over, remove the outer ring and gently take out the innards. And there you have it, the bits that make up a Smiths clock. Conclusions? The outer case, beauty ring and outer ring all need seeing to and re-paint. The glass needs a careful clean and it needs a new O ring. The inner workings all look okay, connections need cleaning and checking but all the circuitry is clean. The methods used on this clock can be used on the others as well. I'll post up the results of the re-furbished clock when completed Roland

Could someone be getting a bargain..

Nice.