Mike6

Hi Barry For some reason just looking at it in the garage and I am love struck again. Selling is really tempting but think I might give her one more go or a year or two before I have to throw in the towel. Good luck with your search - not sure you will find much in that price bracket but people do ask silly prices these days. Are you coming to the TLF lotus day at Merecedes World in May - a good way to meet a lot of Esprit owners and someone may be interested in taking your cash

My 1988 carb turbo accumulates a small amount of oil at the bottom of the plenum. I havent noticed anything in the carbs but then again I havent stripped them down. I am told its a small amount of leakage around the turbo seals which is fairly normal, although an expensive rebuild should prevent this happening.

The throttle jack on the carb engine is there to increase the revs when additional demand is put on the engine. This normally means but not exclusively when the aircon is switched on. But it is not connected or wired into the aircon.

I hit 65 several months ago and my back, and other bits dont contort like they did plus a few ignition breakdowns means I am losing confidence in the car. Particularly as a small hose leak means I couldnt use the car this weekend and its back underneath again - I wouldnt let a garage near it! I probably should look for something more sedate like an MX5 but........... Anyway its an 88 carb turbo with only two previous owners (20 years, one person) but without early history although I now have a box file of receipts having replaced just about everything, apart from clutch, gearbox, suspension and radiator. Bodywork is not a strong point and has stress cracking but polishes up well - a respray should be factored in plus some upholstery work to the seats (hardened leather) although I stripped out and restained the interior It has wheels from the newer SE and tyres are all new plus a spoiler from an SE. Can towers broke up several years ago and I did a complete top end rebuild with replacement pistons, liners cam etc etc - cost well over £2k in parts. Head was also professionally overhauled. It has stainless noisy exhaust. Havent a clue as to mileage Will probably keep until after the 40th aniv meets but wouldnt mind a ball park idea on price to sell - all I see are silly prices. Would £5 - £6k sound about right.

Planning on getting there this month.

The handbrake microswitch located at the bottom of the brake lever is obsolete. Part number is CO75M6084F. It fits a wide range of Esprits. Now that dashboard warning lights are part of MOT I had to do a bodge to get it through. Has anyone found a replacement part which fits.

Sorry cannot help apart from suggesting you look at the parts list on the forum but you do know that you have posted this on the V8 site

Intermittent ignition problems ie when engine was nice and hot turned to to be the dizzy pickup unit on my car. Fairly simple repair.

Yes, found that out when I was casting around for a secondhand dizzy for my turbo. The 45DM4 (from memory) is the turbo one with two vacuum connectors whereas the n/a one has just the single vacuum and is more widely found - on MGBs for instance. Its almost impossible to find the 45DM4 one

Hi Malcolm, The distributor is different on the turbo as it utilises both an advance and retard, so not sure whether the chinese one would be appropriate. .

That was a good write up Roy but my point was that renewing the items was sensible if you didnt know when they were last done. They are pretty much as cheap as chips so logical to start with these if you didnt have your knowhow. Personally I doubt it is the pick up as these tend to break down under load rather than prevent the car from initial start up. The ign amplifier (AB14) is obsolete but you may find an autoelectrician to rebuild it, otherwise source a seconhand one from ebay - use the jaguar site as they were commonly fitted to a number of their older cars.

|Not entirely related but comment has been made about rebuilding the turbo yourself. I think my turbo is spitting a bit of oil as a small puddle accumulates in the plenum chamber over time. I appreciate there is a process to ensure you dont upset the balance if it is simply the seals you are replacing but I was lucky enough to acquire Bibs old turbo unit from Sparky to practice on. Having dismantled it which was not an easy job I am now convinced that it is just too tricky a job to undertake yourself which is a pity as rebuild kits cost around £40 whereas Turbo rebuilders always seem to charge £500 which to me is an excessive markup.

40. Mike 6 - Carb turbo

I vote for an award for the most cracked fibreglass bodywork.

Andy, just had a thought, if you are getting a bang when car comes out of a bump I would check the mounting bobbins between chassis and bodywork. I had a similar noise at the rear of my 88 carb turbo and thought it might be suspension but turns out the fibreglass in the area around the bobbin had broken away.

Personally the only way I found to get reasonable access to the distributor is to remove the plenum cover which then requires a new gasket. So, it make sense just to renew all the components I mentioned earlier rather than fiddle around checking say just the rotor arm. The pick up inside the distributor does cost a bit but at least you dont have to go back to that area again.

Its a very basic unit - not a valve at all. Just dismantle and clean out the discs inside, as simple as that.

Brilliant, hardly 'international' but in my diary.

Ron Although you state no spark have you actually checked this rather than fueling problem. If you are not sure of age of components its always worth getting new plugs plug leads and then rotor arm and distributor cap. Not a fortune to do. If still no go then move on to pickup in distributor plus the lead that goes back into the AB14 (ignition amp) and in that area make sure all connections are tight

Not sure from the title of this thread, where this meet is - am assuming Brooklands but could someone clarify Thanks

Interesting about the cracks on your cam followers. A couple of years ago I was doing a spirited run when the engine made an awful noise and I pulled over immediately. When I investigated a couple of the cam followers had broken up and the bits had damaged the overhead cam but the real damage was the tops of the valves were hitting the cam directly and were unusable. A lengthy engine rebuild then followed. Most people said they had never heard of these followers cracking but talking to the experts, it seems that until the S4 they were all made of cast iron and vulnerable to cracking and breaking up in dramatic style. I was told that whenever taking the head off it was always advisable to change them for the later steel ones as a matter of course as the cracks were not always visible to the eye. I found the best place to buy them was Burton Power and I managed to negotiate a discount by phoning them and ordering all 16.

Thanks Travis. Many a time I have attempted a seemingly simple job and ended up with hours of work.

My seat belt light flickers on and off but is fine if I hold the clip tightly against the anchorage bolted into the central tunnel. It was picked up on an MOT. I need to remove the drivers seat and undo the bolt holding the short bit of seatbelt clasp into the central tunnel to investigate. My question is does the bolt simply anchor into a threaded part of the chassis or is there a plate inside the tunnel which will then cause all sorts of problems getting back into place.

Give West Sussex a miss. All the roads are cratered and now the manhole covers are sinking and these never get repaired. There has been a warning bollard in the road near Felbridge traffic lights over a sunken manhole for getting on 2 years now. So much traffic that I guess they would rather leave it than have the massive jams that would build up if they took time to make a repair repair.

I'd check out the starter motor and/or the connectors