A running engine....just!

After many hours (weekends and evenings only!), all the engine bits are now finally back together. Here's the list of new items:

A fully reassembled engine

• Timing belt
• Tensioner pulley bearing
• Tensioner body (after original broke when putting it together!)
• Auxiliary belt (water pump and alternator)
• Spark plugs
• Oil filter
• Air filter
• Air intake hose
• Cam cover breather hose
• Carburettor lid gaskets
• Intake manifold spacer O-rings
• Carburettor choke linkage

With the battery charged up, it was time to turn the key....

First of all with the spark plugs out just to make sure everything turned over OK. It had seemed fine when turning over by hand on the crank pulley bolt. And it seemed fine on the starter motor too (after finally figuring out that there was an immobiliser....!!). However, it became clear that there was no fuel and closer inspection of the pump revealed there was no noise. After taking some advice, a sharp tap with a "Birmingham spanner" (or a "hammer" to you and me!) did the trick and there was some obvious ticking sounds. So no more excuses! 

Comparing spark plugs

And lo and behold, with a bit of encouragement, we had a running engine! Having said that, it was pretty clear that not everything was 100% right. Out of about 6 attempts, there was only one successful start that lasted more than about 30 seconds. And even then it sounded a little rough. After leaving it overnight, as it was pretty likely there was some flooding, I tried again but this time there was no sign of life. I thought it would be interesting to have a look at the spark plugs and the evidence, as shown in the image, seems to point to no spark in cylinder 1. The other 3 spark plugs are pretty obviously coked while cylinder 1's spark plug was still completely clean and shiny. So next task will be to investigate the cause...

Cambelts and carburettors

Split breather hose

Still waiting for the refurbished brake master cylinder, so I was no longer able to put off getting into the engine. After a trip to Lotus Bits, I came home with a new cambelt, oil filter, air filter, spark plugs and carburettor seals, so lots to get on with! Getting the Dellorto carburettors off was pretty straightforward, although there are a few cables and hoses to disconnect. While taking the breather connection off between the intake cam cover and the plenum assembly, I noticed the short hose is split. This would explain the obvious signs of oil over the cam cover in this area. Hopefully, a replacement is easy to get hold of.

The Dellortos are pretty complex bits and will probably need rebuilding at some point, but for now replacing a few seals should help get the engine going. I picked up 8 o-rings for the seal carriers to the intake ports and 2 paper gaskets for the top seal face.

Dellorto Carburettors (still attached to airbox backplate)

The guys at Lotus Bits recommended cleaning up the insides, but this might be best done with a compressed air line (which I don't have) so I might have to get some help with that bit. But replacing the seals was straightforward and I also took the opportunity to sort out the covering and bracket clips on the airbox with some new rivets and screws. I'll also need to make sure the pipe that goes across the back of the engine to the breather hose (see above) is properly sealed into the back of the airbox. It just slid out while disassembling which means dirty air could potentially bypass the filter and go straight through the  carburettors into the engine - not good! Anyway, some decent high temperature silicon sealant, or similar, should sort that out.

Starter motor removed for flywheel access

With these parts out of the way, I was able to start the process of a timing belt change. Most advice suggests this isn't too easy with the engine in the car and that involves working from underneath as well as sitting in the rear engine compartment and working from the top. But, having jacked up the car at the rear, it seems there isn't a lot of access from underneath - just a couple of cut-outs in the chassis. So I decided to have a go just from the top. There are quite a few components to remove, starting with the alternator. This has one bolt through the alternator bracket and a metal strap to position it and tension the V-belt. Once these were removed, the V-belt could get prised off fairly easily and then it was straightforward to get to the timing belt auto-tensioner. But before touching that, it was important to set the engine to TDC by using a socket wrench on the crank pulley bolt and watching the marks on the flywheel. The engine turned over OK, so I'm reasonably confident the major rotating components and valvegear are OK. With TDC set, the white dots on the camshaft sprockets lined up, as indicated in the workshop manual, so all was well. It was important at this stage to mark the position of the distributor drive sprocket as this will be free to rotate once the belt is off. Then getting the starter motor off allowed access to the flywheel where I was able to jam a utility / pry bar into a flywheel tooth to hold the crank while undoing the crank pulley bolt. This was on pretty tight and I had to use the wheel nut wrench from my Audi as an extension bar to a wrench to eventually get it off. This will be going back on with some anti-seize grease to hopefully make it easier next time! Even with the bolt and retaining plate off, getting the pulley off still required quite a bit of effort to slide it off the crank towards the bulkhead - a bit of WD40 helped here. Next, getting the timing belt auto-tensioner off involved quite a bit of manipulation. Like most of the jobs down the front of the engine, a hand-held mirror and good lighting were important!

Timing belt auto-tensioner

With the adjustment screw backed off to release the belt tension, the best method turned out to be wiggling the belt off the sprockets first and then sliding the tensioner off. In the end, the workshop manual warning about not removing the adjustment screw completely and using a 4mm pin to retain the piston seemed a bit unnecessary. The springs are fairly powerful, but it isn't difficult to retain the parts when the screw is removed - so, I'll know better next time... The bearing (or idler wheel, as I would have referred to it during my engine design days) has some evidence of belt rubber deposits so, while it seems to spin reasonably freely, it is probably wise to take this opportunity to replace it.

The final task in removing the belt involved getting the coolant hose down the front of the engine off the pipe to allow the belt to pass through the gap. This sounds pretty simple, but actually needed quite a lot of effort! I'll need to use a suitable lubricant to reassemble this joint and also make it easier for next time.

So, with the belt off, I loosely fitted the new one and will now get the tensioner sorted out before starting the job of getting all the engine parts back on. Then it will be time to get some fuel in and turn the key....

Lights, camera and (some) action...

Clutch master cylinder back in place

So while the blog may have been neglected a little lately, the car certainly hasn't. Finding time to get on with things is proving a bit tricky, but nonetheless, some progress is being made. Last time I wrote about the clutch and brake master cylinders and that work is still ongoing. The clutch master cylinder I originally sourced proved to have the wrong outlet thread - the Landrover parts appear to be metric rather than the 7/16" UNF that's on the clutch line. So I resold that part on Ebay and then looked around, but even all the genuine Girling parts seemed to have a 3/8" UNF female connection for the outlet. In the end, I picked up one of these and then found an adapter at a diving store - it seems it's a common component for breathing apparatus. Anyway, it fitted fine with a copper sealing washer and the clutch master cylinder is now back in place. In the picture you can also catch a glimpse of a shiny brake servo. This isn't a new part, just the old one cleaned up and repainted. I took this decision as new parts aren't available and a refurbishment is pretty expensive, so best to try it out once the car is running and see if it needs anything doing. The master cylinder, on the other hand, has gone off to Lotus Bits for refurbishment as this is more likely to be problematic - lots of seals to replace and a piston bore that may have some corrosion from water coming out of the brake fluid it has been sat around in while the car has been out of action.

With these parts back on, I was then able to reconnect them to the pedals and replace the steering wheel and the seats. Not surprisingly, connecting up the clutch and brake pedals was extremely fiddly. Access to the clutch isn't too bad but the steering column is really in the way for the brake. In the end, I unscrewed the fork from the servo piston to make it easier to manipulate from inside the car. 

Seat sliding mechanism, pre-refurb

While the seats were out and being cleaned up, I took the opportunity to refurbish the sliding mechanisms which had become pretty rusted to the extent that neither seat could be adjusted. This involved using some rust removal cleanser (another Ebay purchase!) and then a respray with some black Hammerite from Halfords. With these refitted, the seats are now back in the car and they are adjustable!

With all this done and while waiting for the return of the brake master cylinder, the next step was to rebuild the lamp-pods and check if they fitted OK.  The bonnet brackets needed some attention to give them a loose fit in the bushes. The bracket shafts were then fed through the pods and secured with some shiny new R-clips. Once in place, the electrical connections were fed though the grommet space in the back and then the headlamps were refitted. Not sure if these are adjusted correctly, so may need to wait for the MOT test. Just getting the pods to lift correctly and close flush with the bodywork was a bit of a challenge! The pushrod shafts from the electric motors have to be unattached and their lengths adjusted by screwing the rod-ends along the shafts. But got there in the end and the result looks good! Will be interesting to see how it all looks when the bonnet is fitted. The new stainless steel brackets have been completed by Stable Fabrications and they fit fine, so everything is ready there - just waiting for the brake master cylinder so everything is completed in the compartment before finally fitting the bonnet.

Headlamp pods fitted and working!

Clutch and brake master cylinders

Disassembled brake servo assembly

So the next job was to look at replacing the clutch and brake master cylinders. In reality, it's difficult to tell if replacement is necessary without getting to the inside and checking for corrosion damage in the cylinder bores, but from the outside the parts do look a little the worse for wear. They've been sitting unused in their hydraulic oil for quite a while so it's quite likely some rust has formed.

Getting replacement brake parts is not simple. There's a lot of internet chat about the servo and master cylinder being equivalent to Morris Marina Ital parts, but it's difficult to confirm this. I had a look at the Lucas Girling catalogue with the guys at Lotus Bits and the part numbers don't seem to be the same. They can refurbish the parts, but this is a pretty expensive process. In the end, it seems the most economical and simple solution may be fit S3 servo and master cylinder, as these parts are apparently easier to source.

The clutch master cylinder is much more straightforward as the main cylinder part is equiavlent to a Land Rover Defender 90 part and is readily available from 4x4 parts dealers.

New and old clutch master cylinders

I managed to pick a new part up from Ebay for not much more than £10. The piston is not quite the same though, so it's necessary to retain the existing piston and then swap them over. A word of caution: watch out when removing the circlip to release the piston from the body as a flick of a screwdriver flung mine across the garage and it has yet to be found!! Getting the master cylinders out involves a bit of fiddling around in the pedal box to release the split and clevis pins from the pedals - not a simple process as there's not much room in there! For the brake pedal, you need to remove all the retaining nuts from the servo assembly in the front compartment so you can pull this towards the front of the car as far as possible - this moves the clevis pin along the steering column a little to a gap near the spline that just leaves enough clearance to extract it. Hopefully, using the same approach in reverse will allow it to go back in again OK! Now waiting for some bits (circlips and pliers) so I can get this rebuilt and then I'll try to source the brake parts. Then I'll have a go at using the Eezibleed kit that I picked up from Screwfix - this uses air pressure from the spare tyre to make bleeding the brake and clutch systems a very simple process (in theory!).

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....