my Elan SPRINT refurbishment by LOG36 ??

[elanner]

I agree. It seemed to be spectacularly original and not to be tampered with except for safety and road worthiness reasons.

As I mentioned at the time, I really liked the crazing on the bonnet. It takes almost half a century to get patina like that and it would just be a shame to lose it.

Phil: if you can find me a place that will rebuild a diff for $200 I'm all ears!

Nick

[pharriso]

Phil: if you can find me a place that will rebuild a diff for $200 I'm all ears!

Nick

Ted's wife may be reading this, so I am being gentle

[tedtaylor]

Discovering a barn find on Craiglist.. expensive
rebuilding a diff...$200
New Donuts & bushings...$400
rebuilding the brakes...$100
Driving her on the field... priceless!

Look at the smile

Appreciate the positive comments Phil, but i think you're quoting 1973 prices??? and of course we can never put a price on our labor.

[tedtaylor]

UPDATE,
It's been several weeks since LOG where I drove the car sparingly since. Reasons given were the maintenance projects i've been waiting to do and tossing around the idea of maybe stalling until winter for some fun wintertime projects, however i've been driving it bit by bit until this happened:
lotus-twincam-f39/cause-oil-leak-head-drain-tube-t38184.html

Now that problem was resolved and easier to fix than first thought (fear of having to pull the head)., so now the car is "back on the road". With the "Indian summer" we're having and nice warm temperatures, this is premo top down sportscar driving time, so i decided to tackle some additional projects.

As noted above in the link, the oil leak problem fixed and a minor cleaning refurbishment of the carbs was done, and finally synced and running well.

That brings me to today where i drained the coolant. Opening the drain petcock and taking the bottom rad hose off and forcing a garden hose in every which way. Then sealed it up again with a flushing cleaner, 15 minutes or so later, repeat draining and flushing with clean water. Reassembled it all and added a 50/50 premix coolant. Voila !!!

While the car was up on ramps and the engine was hot from the coolant flush, I changed the oil and filter. I noticed the threads to the drain plug were stripped a bit and buggered up, so i cleaned up the threads and replaced the copper washer. Everything sealed up and added Castrol GTX 20-50.

Off to the gas station and filled the tank with fresh gas and an evening jaunt in the Sprint for a great drive. It was Friday evening rush hour, so i had to pick my roads accordingly and i've still kept my driving close to home until i get comfortable enough with it to know its reliability and road worthiness before I take it further and further away from home base.

All in all, I'm very pleased and excited with the end product. Yes, my to-do list is shorter, but bit by bit, i'm getting closer to having everything working and maintained. I think chasing down the vacuum leak will be next and that includes getting the headlight pods to work.

[MenBret]

Hi Ted
Great to hear your project comes to an end. Very nice and original car, well done really.
I'm a bit puzzled though. Isn't it your car for I see for sale here ? http://ww3.autoscout24.fr/classified/293695468
Are you selling it or is it the PO ad?
Cheers
Vincent

[tedtaylor]

that is definitely a BOGUS and FRAUDULANT ad placement using my pictures. That's why i've now "water-marked" my pictures. Please report that post and i will do the same. Damn those scum of the earth types, unscrupulous thieves!!!

[MenBret]

Sorry to hear that.
Seems like the ad has been removed (dead link)
Vincent

[tedtaylor]

I went on the site (and i don't speak/read French), but navigated somehow to the "contact us" section and filed a report/complaint. They got back to me right away and removed the ad.
This is 2nd time i've had that same picture "hi-jacked" for a bogus advertisement overseas!!!

[tedtaylor]

Today i tackled the headlights. They have been in the down position since i got the car and noticed the old plastic links had perished, all broken plastic bits on the nose section floor. I bought new links from Ray. What was troublesome was finding the connecting rod, spring loaded, connecting both pods was "over sprung" in the opposite direction. In other words, the metal ends with pointy edges were pushing hard up against the nose forward of the hood area putting little "dimple" marks in the paint. I simply pulled the connecting rod around to go the other way. Why it was in that damaging position, i don't know.

I removed the old ball/socket link pins from the pods and the connecting rod ends and installed the new links and made adjustments. The light pods are now in the "Federal default" setting = meaning "up" position. The actual electrical function of the headlights and highbeams work just fine, so at the very least, i can drive after sunset.

I checked all connections and the vacuum tubing was in place everywhere it was supposed to be. I knew I had a vacuum leak somewhere as discussed in prior posts. One day i had my daughter out for a ride and she said, "Dad, what is all that 'hissing' sound coming from behind the dash?" Of course i'm partly deaf and can no longer hear some high pitch sounds, like hissing. But this all made perfect sense and i suspected all along it was the headlight switch. I removed the under dash trim panel to reveal the headlight switch and lo and behold, two broken old plastic elbow joint connections right there at the switch leaving the vacuum tubes open and sucking air. I have to get two elbows to replace them and hopefully the headlight pods will then function as they should. My big fear is the big vacuum cylinder condition unknown right now. I'll report back with the success or failure.

While working on the vacuum lines, my car is so original that all the emission evap system is still in place, so i replaced the perished plastic elbow connections to the charcoal canister. So the "catch tank" next to the gas tank is all hooked up properly with new tubing to the fill neck. The tubing from the air cleaner also feeds into the charcoal canister, as well as the suction tubing to both carbs.

getting all those finishing touches and little odds and ends done!

[pharriso]

Of course i'm partly dead .....

I hope you mean deaf

Good job Ted, didn't know our cars ever had carbon canisters.

[tedtaylor]

here it is, attached to inner front fender well between headlight pod and air cleaner. (as found before new rubber elbows replaced).

[collins_dan]

Ray has all the elbows, tubing and one way valve that you should need. I would just go ahead and replace all, it's easy and inexpensive. What you may want to do is not connect to the cross-member initially, until you have the system working, then cut the tubing and connect to the cross-member. That way you will know how it affects the system. If the lights go down, but don't stay that way for long after turning off the engine, then you need to remove the switch, dismantle it and smooth the inside surface to improve the seal. Good Luck! Dan

[tedtaylor]

got the parts today from Ray and installed the elbows onto the light switch. Started car up and "PRESTO", the light pods retracted down!!! Shut car off and presto, they popped right back up. Uh oh, forgot the one way valve. Installed the valve right off the manifold and went through the routine again.
Success!!! Lights go up and down with the vacuum system and switching.
NOW FOR THE BIG QUESTION......How Long will they stay down????
the timer is on, i'll let you know.

What I found interesting reading through the Lotus shop manual, it calls for the light pods staying down for 12 hours as OK, system in good order. That's interesting. So by factory default, 12 hours was their goal? Does anyone have their pods staying down longer?? days? weeks? just curious...

[gjz30075]

Ted, my lights stay down for about 6 weeks. The hard plastic lines are original but with all new elbows and
'T' at the frame. The biggest leak I had was the switch. I just couldn't get it to close properly. I determined
this when I decided to simply bypass the switch and put a loop in the system at that point. Bingo, they stayed
down almost forever. My fix was to use a '68 - '82 Corvette light switch. Works on the same principle.

This thread is my temporary fix
lotus-electrical-f38/vacuum-headlight-switch-failsafe-t27015.html

I've now got the switch installed in some Ford Zodiac bracketry with the micro switches attached and all
hidden behind the dash. I needed the Zodiac switch because it has the same shaft the knob gets attached
to.

Maybe too much information for you and the conversion is probably not for everybody but something to
consider.

[tedtaylor]

well it was mid-afternoon yesterday when i shut the car off with lights down. By bedtime (I always tuck my baby in before bed time) the pods were still down. First thing this morning, i found them partially up (not quite all the way), so i think i might have gotten the textbook 12 hours out of it.
I'm satisfied!