Inside and out

Some progress on the interior.....

Shiny seat!

Nic took delivery of the Gliptone leather cleaning kit from www.liquidleather.com and we took both seats out into the glorious sunshine on Saturday. As you can see from the photo, the cleaner has done a really good job! There are lots of other interior jobs to do, but this is a really good start. While the seats are out, we'll refurbish the sliding mechanisms, which have become a bit rusty which explains why it wasn't possible to adjust the seats while they were in the car.

We've also now had the refurbished steering rack from LotusBits along with the repaired bonnet and the relevant fixing brackets. This took a couple of attempts though as I noticed that we had only right hand brackets and no left hand ones! The brackets also need fixing plates and some shims - we could get the original Lotus parts but it may be better to visit Stable Fabrication (who I know well) and get some stainless steel parts made up. Then we'll be ready to fit the bonnet and headlamps and make sure it all goes together before the respray operation. Having discussed this further, we're probably going to need to spray the panels adjacent to the bonnet to otherwise we could end up with a noticeable colour mismatch. Will be a bit more expensive but probably worth it in the long run.

So here's a picture of the nice shiny refurbished steering rack with new track rod ends ready for re-assembly. Sounds simple, but probably even more fiddly than getting it off in the first place!

Shiny Steering Rack!

Steering rack removal

So I now have a proven method for removing a steering rack from an Esprit S2:

Steering rack removed
 and measured

1. Jack up the front of the car and remove both front wheels
2. Undo the screws on the clamps holding the rack to the front cross member and remove the brackets and shims
3. Remove the nuts from the top of the ball joint between the track rod ends and the steering arms on both sides.
4. This joint includes a taper so after the nuts have been removed, you need to hit the top of the threaded section fairly hard with a hammer to release the rod ends from the arms.
5. Remove the nut and bolt for the clamp at the bottom of the universal joint on the shaft joining the steering column to the rack. The shaft should then slide out if you pull the rack downwards, but it may be bit stiff so soak in WD40 if necessary
6. The rack should now be free to slide out through the driver's side wheel arch. However, it can take a lot of wiggling as there are coolant hoses, clutch fluid lines and chassis / suspension bits in the way!

After removing the rack, I took some measurements so I should be able to set the steering up again in approximately the right position after the refurbishment at LotusBits. The alignment won't be perfect but hopefully close enough until I can get it set properly at a garage.

Steering rack and column

UJ at bottom of steering column

The first major task is to get the steering rack out for refurbishment. Without having the car yet, I'm relying on information from the previous owner that this is an important thing to do. What has been noticeable is a fairly loud 'clunk' when turning the steering wheel. On closer inspection, it is caused by moving the steering wheel up and down when turning rather than the actual motion. With the front of the car now raised on axle stands, I've now been able to get underneath and take a look and the universal joint near the bottom of the column (as suggested by some of the experienced guys over at www.thelotusforums.com) - see picture on the right. This seems to be fine - no play and looks well greased. So had to look a bit deeper for the 'clunk'.

Driver's seat

Again, from underneath the car it was possible to look up the steering column and see that it was knocking against the cut out in the body when the steering wheel was moved. Finding the source of this meant getting into the footwell from inside the car, which is a bit of a squeeze to say the least. In the end, it was best to take out the driver's seat! This wasn't too difficult and was probably a good idea, as Nic wants to have a look at the leather as part of her role as 'Minister for the Interior'! We also found that the fixing bars that allow the seat to slide backwards and forwards were pretty rusty, so hopefully these can be cleaned up and we'll be able to adjust the seat properly when it's back in.

Even with the seat out, it still wasn't easy to get into the footwell, so off came the steering wheel as well! At the bottom of the steering column I found a sleeve that sits just about the universal joint that links to the intermediate shaft and on down to the rack. It seemed this sleeve wasn't quite doing its job because as soon as it was re-positioned, the 'clunk' disappeared!

Sleeve at bottom of steering column

It's not clear how this sleeve is retained, as it is still free to spin around the shaft but can't slide up or down. I considered taking the whole steering column out to have a better look, but this is a really awkward job and one that now thankfully doesn't seem to be necessary.

So next job is to get the rack out. The screws under the body that retain the clamps are pretty rusty so I've soaked them in WD40 and hope they will come out OK....