1976 Elite 504 Light Restoration

[makepeace]

Hi everyone,

This is my 1976 504 after a bit of a polish, and also fresh from passing roadworthy after about 8 years of on and off work on the car, both physically and on its government record.

The first owner let the registration lapse, and it hasn't been legally on the road since the early 1990s and was then passed around a bit as a bit of a basket case as it was very difficult to get registered again. I will be the 4th owner but I'm calling it the 2nd.

It was a real battle to get the registration reinstated here in South Africa, and we had to track down the first owner now living in the US who was really great about helping getting things straightened out. He is currently restoring a Europa which is looking great!

The car has been living at my folks place for the past 7.5 years or so - about a 1.5 hour drive from where I am, which made working on the car a bit tough. I finally got a bigger place with some space to work on the car, so I managed to haul it over an infamous pass so that I can put more regular work in.

It has a beautiful cream leather interior, which is in pretty good condition apart from a few misplaced holes in the ignition socket area.

The light colour of the dash near the windscreen is a bit too bright though for mine and most people who have been around the car. I am heavily considering recovering or trying to stain it brown/black/charcoal to improve visability. The glare it creates on the windscreen leaves your eyes watering! Some concerns about this would be whether to hold onto the original leather for posterity, or whether to go the staining route which will be a lot cheaper.

The engine bay and boot area are a bit tatty - there has been more than 1 fire. I have done a bit of work on it, so it's quite a bit better than it was. It's got Dellorto DHLA 45 Es, the power steering works, air con doesn't seem to work at this point - all I get is heat when I turn it on.

It still has an auto box which works, but seemingly only just. It struggles to get into 3rd gear, and requires tapping off at low revs to get it there, otherwise it screams up to 5500 before it goes into 3rd.

There is also the typical cam cover oil leak, which is on the list to sort out.

The work I have done so far to get it to roadworthy condition includes multiple carb rebuilds which has left them in a bit of a state and I am no longer able to get a good tune out of them. Also a couple of rebuilds of the fuel pump and eventual replacement with an electronic SU lookalike.

Then the ignition system was a bit suspect, with the "wrong" distributor (it's a Spec 5 so it calls for a 23D4, but had a 25D with a sheared vacuum diaphragm casting). I replaced that with a new unit configured by Ignition Car Parts.

Then there was mixed suppression going on with resistive leads and resistive plugs, and one accidental occurrence of me setting a 0.9mm plug gap rather than 0.6mm which led to a lot of head scratching. I ended up building up my own NGK style non resistive leads which was a cost effective solution.

The next one was a split radiator and the header tank was properly rusted and transparent in places, and being on a bit of a budget I was off to the scrap dealers to try and find a radiator to fit and a palatable header tank. I ended up with a BMW radiator unit that was used on some models of Z3 which is holding up pretty well. For the header tank, I found a modern Mini Cooper after market tank which I designed a laser cut and bent bracket for to fit it which you can see in the photos above.

Another part of the running issues was caused by a slowly disintegrating fuel tank, also the cause of much swearing and a few rescue missions to get back home. I resolved to have an aluminium tank built locally. The guy was unable to get hold of the correct bends for the filler tubes, so we solved that with some makeshift modified minibus taxi filler tubes as flexible fuel hose is pretty much unobtanium here.

The next thing to do was a full running over of the electricals, which yielded not too many issues other than some tidying, fuse replacement and fitting of some LED low power consumption headlights to circumvent the typical thermal interupptor issue.

I also replaced the boot and bonnet struts which had popped.

During the road testing the brake master cylinder popped, so that had to be rebuilt, which was the followed by the rear wheel cylinders both popping, which were also rebuilt.

After the first roadworthy attempt, the car was docked for wheel alignment, leaking coolant, ARB bushings, and pop up headlight synchronisation issues. 

I resolved to cast my own ARB bushings by 3D printing a mould and using a 2 part polyurethane mixture of about 70A Shore. That went pretty well!

For the alignment, I took the car to a suspension place which offered that the suspension components were in too bad condition to set alignment which was a sad one, but I did the best I could to set the front alignment using the "by eye" method (strapped some bits of wood to the wheels and measured along them to get the difference).

Water pump was the rebuilt by a local specialist which fixed the coolant leak. Nice and clean!

The final issue, headlight synchronisation, is still a bit of a mystery. I narrowed it down to the right solenoid not engaging (sometimes) when voltage is applied. If you give the actuator a bit of a nudge, it opens the valve, but otherwise it takes from 5-never seconds for the coil to pull the actuator closed. I ended up paralleling the two vacuum actuators with some T-pieces and a bit of pipe across the top of the radiator, which loses some redundancy, but now the headlights are 100% in sync.

Finally, the car passed roadworthy and she is now legal to drive on the roads, and I'm a happy camper.

The next issue picked up after some stress testing is that the rear wheel bearings are shot, inducing a terrible blood curdling oscillation at about 70 km/h. That, along with clacking sounds under certain loads which seem to be the UJs on the driveshafts. Those are fairly easy, but the wheel bearings are a bit of an expensive problem. As mentioned in another thread, I'm currently considering widening the bores of the hub carriers and fitting more pocket friendly and widely available roller taper bearings.

Other than that, there is a lot to do to get the car to a happy place. I don't have the budget or time for a full restoration, so I am going to enjoy doing a light restoration to get the car to a nice place where I can enjoy it, and the next owner can have a good platform to do what they will.

Priorities include fixing anything irritating, some cosmetic bits on the interior, paintwork and engine, getting her running as best as possible - she is still struggling to breath a bit, and also getting the suspension in top shape. I will do some important bits of maintenance (any recommendations here would be greatly appreciated) - timing belt is a particular worry, but that is in the mail.

I still have the original airbox, so that will also be restored and improved to be more similar to the later clasp style.

Looking forward to the next steps which I will keep this thread updated with! Also, a massive thanks to all of you for your input over the years - this place is an invaluable resource!

[makepeace]

I got in touch with Andy Graham @ Lotus in the hopes of getting hold of the providence certificate for the car, and it seems like it's a bit of an oddball! There were some Esprits shipped down to South Africa as CKD (car knocked down) format, I imagine for tax purposes. They were then built up by Intermotormakers in Cape Town. The theory is that this Elite was also sold in such a fashion! This would explain some oddities such as the out of spec distributor and a couple of other things.

Does anyone know of any details about the CKD process such as in what parts the cars were usually shipped?

I am going to see if the original owner or the then owners of IMM have any more details.

[makepeace]

No joy yet on the providence info, but will keep digging. I was able to get a value appraisal recently, so now I can get the car insured, which has been worrying me every time I take the cover off.

The next major issue to solve is rumbling in the rear as I get up to about 70 km/h. I'm taking a methodical approach and in order of least expense.

First was wheel balancing all around which I got the results of today. The fronts are okay, but the shop refused to balance the rears as they say the (Bridgestone) tires are kaput, which was really sad to hear. You can only get rubbish tires in this size here in South Africa. In any case, ordered some Powertrac City Tour tires (best of the worst) for the rear, we'll see what happens there.

The next step is the driveshaft UJs which I know are bad - all sorts of clacking and play. I ordered some Landy S3 UJs which are very available here - a win. I am going to attempt to replace them myself, and while at it clean up, plate and paint any bits that come off in the process.

Wheel see where we get with that, and then most likely move on to the wheel bearings.

In parallel, some cam cover sealingware is on the way as well as a belt, so those will probably be done too while the rear is in pieces.

Speaking of which, does anyone know offhand what the cambelt tensioner bearing code is? Would be nice if I can source locally replace those while at it.

[EXCEL V8]

Does your timing belt tensioner have the type with a separate steel outer shell that presses over the pair of bearings?  If so I think I have the old boxes for mine somewhere - should be able to find the number.  If the universal joints you have ordered are a heavy duty type although they are dimensionally the same as the Lotus items the "body" of them is larger and the inner yokes (next to the diff) have to be machined for them to fit.

Pete

[makepeace]

Thanks Pete, I will check the dimensions of the UJs - holding thumbs they are the correct ones, otherwise will have to see what I can find here and hope the ones I have can be returned. I should probably have removed them and taken them to the supplier to double check!

Re the tensioner bearings, thanks for the offer to check. I imagine I will have to take it apart to find this out or will a close up photo do?

[EXCEL V8]

A close up should show the difference - also the bearing with the steel sleeve displays a distinct "crown" on the periphery of the sleeve.  Also the tensioner bearing mount is differently constructed - it's in two parts rather than one, with a different hexagon size on the outside. 

If you can be bothered to trawl through my restoration thread "Elite Restoration Begins" on the Lotus Grand Tourers site you will find more details of the difference between the u/js.

Pete

[makepeace]

UJs have arrived. They appear to be the correct size?

 

I will see if I can get a decent shot of the tensioner, thanks also for the pointer to the other thread - I'm always willing to trawl, but usually forget where to find things.

Edited January 12 by makepeace

[makepeace]

I just had a chat with the original owner. He reckons that after he had propshaft UJs replaced, the vibration started. So that now points in a completely different direction that I was probably going to save for last or 2nd last.

Are there any tips or tricks to work out where a vibration is coming from?

[EXCEL V8]

The propshafts are a "tube-in-tube" design.  If the u/js go out of alignment because the rubber in the propshaft fails then that would lead to vibration.  Worth checking the alignment of the propshaft u/js - unfortunately easier said than done!

Pete

[makepeace]

Thanks Pete. I dug around a bit underneath the car to try and find the ends of the propshaft - it's quite difficult to get at! I was hoping to try and do a manual method of adjustment by adding a jubilee clip and finding the balance point, but doesn't seem like I will be able to get to the centre of the shaft. I got the details of a specialist here, so I think I will do it properly and take it there. Hopefully it's relatively easy to balance. I don't think the UJs will need replacing again as the car hasn't been driven much since they were.

Rear tires were shot, and unfortunately we only have garbage here in the size, but I got the Powertrac City Tour tyres installed on the rear and some noises have disappeared. They don't seem too terrible for normal road use.

In other news, some parts arrived for the cam cover and belt refresh:

Excited to sort the cam covers out to get rid of this oil leak and also clean them up a bit. Belt also worries me every time I start the car.

Along with these issues, another priority is to get a new SS exhaust made. The current one is very tatty, clogged up inside and full of holes and the configuration is also a bit wrong. There is about half the amount of air coming out the right side outlet than the left.

More soon!

[EXCEL V8]

Good to see some photos to see what you're dealing with!  Did you know the spare wheel carrier should have a large round fibreglass "board" on it?

Pete

[pbharcourt]

Ref the cam belt tensioner bearing, not sure if this would interest you but I used a Ford focus cam belt tensioner bearing with plastic belt wheel.

I had to disassemble the ford (cutting required) unit to get to the belt wheel with bearing and then slightly turn down the two ends of the Lotus bearing carrier to fit the centre boss of the Ford bearing.

Result is a much better bearing set up and the ability to replace it in the future for peanut's!