Still waiting...

Well things have gone really tits up in the last few days (.Y.)...
The car is still at the garage and they have had all sorts of problems fitting the new exhaust system. So much so in fact that they questioned as to whether it was the right exhaust for the car. I have however checked with lotusbits from whom I bought the missing sections of my exhaust system. These consisted of the Y piece and two small tubes which connect the Y piece to the tail boxes. Lotusbits assured me that everything is correct. Although there are two types of exhaust for this car they are distinguished by the pipe mating flanges. Provided the flanges match my boxes, and they do, then the pipes are correct. The problem may have arisen from the way in which the garage tried to fit the exhaust. Apparently they fitted it initially by raising the car on a two post ramp. Raised in this way the wheels hang free. Apparently the exhaust fitted perfectly like this but when the car was placed back onto its own wheels then it was found that the exhaust contacted the prop shaft, chassis and rear bumper. There is limited room for manoeuvre with this type of exhaust because of the flanged conical joints. However lotusbits tell me that the secret is to twist the pipes into the correct position whilst the car is load bearing so the garage will have another go at this tomorrow using a 4 post lift. However, they have by now had the car for a full week. I would imagine that they are getting very impatient. I do not want to annoy this place because in the end they control my MOTs and so access to the road. If anyone reading this has any hints as to how such an exhaust can be successfully fitted please feel free to PM me.

The situation is made even worse since the usual  supplier of new low compression engine exhausts has apparently gone into receivership. Although wide bore exhausts are still available they are clearly not right for my car. Not to mention the fact that they cost nearly twice as much. Even so if I were forced to use such an exhaust the lead time would be 6 weeks. All in all things are not looking so bright. I sincerely hope the garage manages to fit the exhaust correctly tomorrow.

Sadly they didnt get time on the ramps- and then the bank-holiday intervened so here I am nearly 2 weeks now and still no answer.

I realise that the ramp access problem is down to the garage, but it seems exhausts on the Excel are pretty notorious. Most problems occur on the later SE models when Lotus farmed out exhaust manufacture to two companies (Peco and Grundy) each of whom used their own jigs to manufacture similar-looking but mutually incompatible systems. Apparently this is where the Lotusbits specification for matching flanges comes from. However during the low compression Excel era I think Lotus made only one type of exhaust (distinguished as the SE systems both have different manifold down pipes) which is supposedly easier to fit. Given that there are therefore at least 3 different and incompatible original exhaust systems out there (not to mention the legion of later pattern parts with/without flanges made using these as templates) it does seem that the process of assembling a system from component parts was actually pretty much doomed to failure! I was told that everything is compatible- and I did check, but at this remove was anyone really certain what parts had come from where?
I am promised that the garage will have another crack at the system tomorrow and should at least know if I have to pursue a complete replacement... although I now have doubts whether even a new exhaust is likely to fit any more easily!

Last minute preparation

Well we are nearly there!! I have a few last minute things to bolt down, fit on or adjust and then it's off for the MOT test- for the Americans reading this blog, this is the annual road-worthiness assessment that every car over 3 years old must undergo in order to be driven legally in the UK. Its a very useful check on the general deterioration of a vehicle in the UK climate and also on the safety of any repairs. Its both useful and feared at the same time. If I could find a virgin I would sacrifice her (or her virginity?) to the almighty Gods of the MOT... but as I can't (they are rarer than hen's teeth round here) I am simply having to trust to luck.

Obviously its daft to fail on simple things so a last minute pre-test check is advisable, and of all the jobs I have to do most are very simple I need to:
1.  Adjust the clutch pedal for smooth disengagement.
Checked- I think its OK and won't change it until I have tried it in use on the road.
2. Secure the battery using the battery clamps, but don't refit the battery cover as the tester will need to check battery security, and also I don't want to damage the flimsy cover because I also have to...

Battery clamped in terminals reattached- wooden spacer required in front.

3. Assemble the new exhaust system and fitting kit and put them in the boot ready for the garage to fit.
I have assembled a collection of stainless steel nyloc nuts, washers, and bolts of the correct length (6 x 40mm M8 and 12 x 30mm M8) plus rubber hangers of the correct types (4 each), so that the exhaust can be fitted securely. I have also supplied a manifold-to-downpipe gasket although this might not be needed.
4 Re-route throttle cable and fit a new (or extra) spring to the throttle return arm to stop it sticking slightly on.

I shortened the spring and refitted it- the throttle now no longer sticks and the pedal has a good positive pressure when pressed. 
6. Refit air filter and induction system.
I refitted the box but not the filter as the carbs were setup without it and I want to give them the best possible opportunity to breathe and thus meet the emissions standard specified in the test.
7. Fit the locking wheel nuts as there are currently only 3 nuts per wheel!
I bought a new Krooklock set years ago but have never needed to fit them- had entirely forgotten that I have had only 3 nuts per wheel for the last 2 years!

I also discovered that one wire on the driver's door mirror had broken. There are 4 wires to each door mirror and each terminates in a male mini spade connector which just pushes into the back of the mirror. This arrangement takes up very little room fits under the cover smoothly. I didn't have anything suitable to replace these connectors so I reused the old terminal, carefully unpicking the crimp and soldering on a short extension wire, covering the join with heat shrink.

Removing the 4 Phillips screws releases the mirror and motor unit

Separating the mirror unit- Only 3 wires are attached to the mirror. Blue wire has broken, the old contact is seen still stuck in the motor unit below the brown wire. 

Refitting the old spade connector to a short fly lead

Joining extension to mirror wire; heat shrink over join

Mirror reconnected and cover replaced.

Assuming the car actually makes the trip to the MOT station OK (in my case about a mile and a half), then I am also asking the garage to do some work for me.

Firstly, I want them to fit the second hand stainless steel exhaust system I have assembled from a variety of sources. I could do this myself, but without a decent ramp it will be difficult and unpleasant. Plus I am only asking the garage to change those parts of the system that need to be changed. Although I am supplying a complete system, I think some parts such as the down pipe from the exhaust manifold, may be in good enough condition to leave. Leaving this will make the job both quicker for them and hopefully cheaper for me. I need the Garage with its eye to the MOT to make that judgement call.

Secondly, I have changed the steering rack and track rod ends (as avid readers of my blog may recall). This means that the tracking now needs to be adjusted -especially as I have new tyres front and rear and don't want excessive wear on them so early in their life.

These things then are what I can control, but even so I do not expect the car to pass the test. I can't think of anything specific that it will certainly fail on, but on the other hand I don't know for certain that even those jobs I have done will pass. I am also worried about those parts of the car that I haven't touched - and really this means all of the suspension with the exception of the forward upper arm bushes and upper ball joints. I.E. ARB bushes, rear supension bushes, lower arm bushes and ball joint, all springs and shock absorbers. The car has only done 45,000 odd miles so I am hoping that some of these at least will still be roadworthy despite their age, and the shocks in particular are so expensive to change (coil-over replacements required) that I don't want to do such a job unnecessarily. For comparison I can change nearly all the shock absorbers on the MGB for the price of one Lotus shock! However, although I expect a fail, the MOT should result in a shortlist of jobs and I have a two week window (whilst my MGB is having its body work repairs) in which I can get on with trying to finalize the Lotus for its return to the road.

Note added after car sent for test...

Well the Lotus is clearly going to fail. I took it down this morning... It was pushed onto my drive two years ago by a hefty, heavily tattooed, ex naval Scotsman as a very sick car. Now some two years later and after many trials and tribulations (see blog!) I have been able to drive it off again under its own power:  The first time I've driven it, and I think the first time its been driven in 10 years... and YES(!) we made it to the testing station!

On the credit side the motor was smooth and even and pulled really well. On the mildly irritating side I was wrong about the clutch... it does still need adjusting; and on the highly irritating side, a couple of the things I had already "fixed" broke again on the way down. I think I have said before that this car just doesn't seem to want to be rescued!

• The wipers no longer self-park- they did so happily yesterday but today its just too much trouble for them! 
• The power steering has become lazy. Its weak-to-non-existent and doesn't feel particularly motivated to help me to turn the wheel. 
• One headlamp main beam decided not to come on! 

These are all things I have previously sorted and checked- wiper self cancellation was one of the first jobs I did on the car and its been fine from June 2014 right up to yesterday. I think its just possible that the heavy steering is caused by really awful wheel alignment which will be checked at the garage. I think that will improve matters but I doubt its going to fix the problem. Although I did get the rack reconditioned I did nothing to the pump except refit it so at the moment I'm guessing I really need a recon pump too. Still I will see what else the garage say and what light if any they can shed on the problem! Could just be a bleeding or belt problem Although it has to fail (headlamp alone would do it), the extent (and cost) of the jobs-to-do list remains in the lap of the Gods...

To Be Continued!

Well, I finally heard back from the garage... As expected the result was a fail. Surprisingly and gratifyingly practically everything I had done passed... I was notified of 7 fail items... But they made surprising reading.

1. N/s headlamp main beam inoperative
2. Headlight aim too high
3. N/s front tyre incorrectly fitted
4. O/s front tyre incorrectly fitted
5. Speedometer not capable of illumination
6. Track rod end locking nut loose
7. Emissions not tested due to poor state of exhaust.

Surprisingly the wipers seem to have parked themselves and the tester had sufficiently well-developed biceps that any deficiencies in the PAS went unnoticed! The damaged jacking points were not a failure item. All in all very good news.

Surprisingly though because...
Headlight failure is new, I had noted it as I drove down. The dip beam is still working so a new bulb should sort that out. I've never checked beam alignment... They have a gauge for that and I'd expected it to need doing.
Both my tyres are new and fitted on my drive by Etyres. This was a very good service. I think I must have swapped l and r wheels at some point and this probably accounts for in incorrect rotational direction. I think that's a more likely explanation than the fitter fitted them wrongly. Its not something I'd ever really considered as swapping tyre positions was formerly a normal part of service to equalize wear "in the old days" and I had never considered that wheels weren't interchangeable! If they aren't, where does this leave the role of the spare wheel?  I need to get my head around this because the garage think that the tyres need to be removed and refitted which is a bit more expensive... I think just swapping the front wheels might sort them out. Well I have now checked my tyres... they are Nexen CP6450... Cheapish and mixed reviews... main problem seems to be road noise... (that would be novel for me as you need to be driving the car for that to be a problem!!). Anyway the point is that these are directional  but they are not assymmetric so the arrow markings have to face the direction of rotation but inside and outside edges are not different. Consequently just swapping the wheels left for right should solve the problem without needing to remove and refit! This seems to have arisen from my error and I will know better in future.

I am  bit concerned about the speedo light - might it not simply be a low setting on the panel light control? ... I didn't check that but I think the light worked when I last had the speedo out and its possible that the garage don't realize that such an early car even has a panel light control!

I'm not worried about the track rod nuts. I hadn't bothered to crank these up really tight because the car only had to make it to the garage and wheel alignment needs adjusting anyway. This was booked with the MOT and should put that right.

Well I'm probably being over cautious. I had initially decided to do these repairs myself, but that means removing the car from their premises and if the car has been moved then its always possible that they could find something "new". I know that in theory if you return the car in short order (7 days I think) they need only retest the fail items... but who knows? I don"t want to snatch failure from the jaws of success and have them find additional faults... I decided on balance to leave it with them and have them repair the fail items and trust that it then passes the emissions test. However having spent so much time prepping and repairing stuff myself, I am a little worried at having the garage do the repairs. After all its not a common car and they can't be familiar with it. For instance, if its not a panel light control issue, then getting the dashpod out to fit a new speedo bulb (BA9s) isn't straightforward, and I really don't want my carefully repainted instrument trim panel snapped. Similarly I'm a little worried in case they don't know how to remove the headlights without damaging the bezels or mounting pins... Neither of these were obvious to me at first and I had the manual and the forum to ask! I clearly have trust issues.

Well, they have now kept the car for a couple of days whilst they swap the exhaust, align wheels and attend to the fail items before repeating the MOT.

Swapping the otter switch

When I rebuilt the car I had installed the original otter switch because I needed the system watertight. I was pretty sure it didn't work because the LBPO had bypassed it. Even so the fan didn't work either and I had to fix that anyway. However, having repaired the fan and got the motor running I have to say the fan never did come on unless I deliberately triggered it. Conclusion: I think this switch must be a dud.

I had intended to upgrade to the screw-in switch used in later Excels and bought the appropriate switch pipe from Lotusbits. Unfortunately this lacks the water return spigot because in later cars this was incorporated into the radiator bottom hose. Consequently this upgrade would mean a complete drain down and a new hose. I therefore postponed this mod until I next drain the system and ordered a replacement for the push-in type of Otter switch currently fitted. I know that these can fail but they are widely used... my MGB has one for instance, and they don't always fail so I will stick with it for the moment.

I don't want to drain the system- partly because it would waste the fluid, but also because its quite difficult to do- I struggled for some time with the drain plug last time although admittedly that was in the cold and dark which has coloured my memory! I decided therefore to preserve as much fluid as I could- and this should be possible since the switch is located relatively high up in the coolant system.

Fluid can only flow out if air can flow in to replace it so I blocked off the filler cap with a couple of sheets of clingfilm below the cap. The system should then be sealed and air pressure should hold most of the fluid inside.

I Loosened the "P" clip holding the switch pipe above the radiator

 Removing the old switch was very tricky- I had installed it reusing the grommet and so had stuck it in with Wellseal- this by the way gave a really good seal. The trick is to pull the switch out of the grommet and then the grommet out of the hose. My attempt to minimise fluid loss was reasonably successful- I lost some but only around 250 ml or so.

This is the new switch. The grommet is tapered outwards at its base so that it locates positively in the pipe.. The clip sits below the top ring of the grommet and holds the switch onto the grommet it self.

 Note the clip goes on the grommet not against the switch

 Fitting is the reverse (no Wellseal this time). Fit the grommet first...

... and then push the switch into the grommet. The switch pipe needs to be positioned so that water inside will cover the switch so this means the switch should be mounted horizontally or downwards.

 Reconnect wiring (dielectric grease on contacts) and secure with a safety tie.

So with trepidation I fired up the motor and let it warm up. Using an infra-red thermometer I monitored the temperature of the switch pipe. Whoppeee!! The fan operated around 80 deg C. I did also test my old switch in a cup of hot water- and I'm pleased to say it really was dud.

This is the last "fitting" job I had to do on the car before MOT-  I still need to refine my carb setting and this really needs a road test: The trouble is that the law in the UK doesn't permit any road testing so the first time I can drive it will be en route to the testing station and that's really a bit late for a shake out. There is also the small question of whether I will actually get there!! I find myself doing little jobs- like putting screenwash in the water bottle! Probably in an attempt to put off the dreaded MOT test. Ah well - if it was easy we would all drive Lotuses.

Replacement door latch?

You may recall that I had received a duff latch as a replacement part from Lotusbits. Although they kindly swapped this for another, they didn't want the old one back which was great as I thought that I thought something inside might be useful, so I dismantled it to see if it could be repaired/salvaged.

New Replacement latch as received -

"new latch" plate bent

Cross link visible under the back plate... and loose- it should be hidden!

The central rivet has been replaced but this doesn't seem to  have been strong enough- or perhaps nothing fitted  properly in this bent state, because a screw has been driven into the latch body forcing the plate over a little. 

New screw added to bodge everything into position and hold the top of the plate down.

Grind off head of replacement rivet

Remove latch cover

Innards in correct location-Hook latch and circular latch undisturbed

Rocking latch spring broken/misplaced

Spring removed and trimmed to a better length

Other side of latch- plates in position but very bent.

I removed both plates from the rear of the latch and carefully hammered both back into shape. I also had to file the plastic where the bodger's screw had been inserted before the plates would lie flat.

Hook plate orientation relevant to circular latch. Note pin on hook plate that penetrates through the plastic (top left) to fit into the footplate on the other side.

Spring below Latch note installed with bend towards centre. The latch itself rotates in the left hand groove below the spring.

Foot plate was cracked so I re-welded and ground back down to shape. It still seems to be a little loose vertically and could perhaps  lift off the pin from the hook latch. It seems to be OK at present though. I will investigate whether the footplate can be thickened on top without catching in the plastic body

I reassembled the latch, its pretty much as in my previous post on my repair of the latch that came with the car described here, but in order to help with reassembly I now present several views of the plates and how they are arranged.
Note:
1. The cross link fits into the slotted cutout on the internal handle plate.
2. The cresent plate on this side is positioned pointing to the  bottom of the lock, the smooth end is free and the notched end points in towards the plastic body

Handle lock plate correctly positioned- cross link held beneath plate. Temporary bolt holding latch together

Key lock Z plate. The tab at the bottom (attached to cross link) is the lock and will slip into the space above the footplate when the door is closed. It will not lock unless the circular latch has been turned to the closed position- in this pic it is in the open configuration and so there is no room for the lock plate to fit- it jams on the footplate (top centre).- note the blob of weld where I had to repair this plate too.- the blob doesn't get in the way so I left it.

Here the latch has been moved to the closed configuration. This withdraws the footplate and allows the locking plate to drop in beside it thus blocking its movement back up.

Key lock plate- distorted E clip bent into place temporarily top right (later replaced with 4.8mm E clip)

I firmly believe that there is a difference between a circlip, a snap ring and an E clip. These are E clips and have the internal flaps, circlips have a smooth contour and two eyes for opening them with pliers and a snap ring is a simple bent wire hoop - well in my view anyway. I don't like to see these confused- and for that matter split pins are not cotter pins! All this irritates me a bit... sorry rant over!  Anyway- the latch uses E clips and I need to replace one retaining the rod (top right). I have a pack of the usual sizes but none fitted so I compressed one into position as a temporary measure and investigated. This clip is now de-listed by Lotus (not sure why) but  apparently E clips are specified by the diameter of the shaft, not the groove into which they fit. This means I need 4.8mm or 3/16" E clips and these are readily available so I ordered a few.

I swapped the E clip when the right size came. The latch was functional now so I've stored it as a spare.