Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Alex, why didn't you tell me it was red!?

Went to the eBay auction and saw a pic. B'gora . . . any tool that looks that beautiful has got to be good.



I'll check out their other models.

Sea Ranch wrote:Alex, why didn't you tell me it was red!?

Went to the eBay auction and saw a pic. B'gora . . . any tool that looks that beautiful has got to be good.



I'll check out their other models.

Well It is Chinese!!!! But. It has worked for me so far. Taking the car to have the timing done would cost more than buying that tool. I don't normally buy cheep but I thought I would give it a try. If if works well next time, and I am sure it will, ... Well.. Happy days!

Alex.

It looks identical to my cheap ?20 apart from the colour and mine has been working for 25 years.

Yes even back then ?20 was cheap for a Xenon strobe light, it may even have cost more!

The inductive pick ups are by their nature fragile, the carbon on mine has cracked into 2 pieces but they are still retained by the moulding and it still works as before.

I have bought many many tools in recent years that I could only have dreamed of owning decades ago and mostly they are far cheaper now than then, if only the same could be said for Elan parts which are in the main robbed from other manufacturers of the time, they were dirt cheap then but not now.

Decided my next step is to buy a new Timing Light as the Gunson one I used to have is long gone.

Checked this topic, but alas the one Alec found is no longer available, so after searching t'Internet via Amazon I found this Draper one

and decided to buy it direct from Draper Tools instead of via Amazon, the tax fiddlers.

http://www.drapertoolbox.co.uk/draper-5 ... 5412-66575

Ordered now and their web site says it is on the way, but no tracking code given.

It looks similar to the Chinese one mentioned above so I would not be at all surprised if the innards are the same even if the case is slightly different.

My Draper Timing light arrived today and it looks just like that image above. I looked all over but no sign of a "Made in China" so maybe it is a home product after all.

Anyway it works fine just as expected and the light is bright enough for me to see the timing with the nose of my Elan in the shade in my garage and its tail (and exhaust fumes) outside in the bright sunlight.

Not relating to the instrument itself, but my radiator is pretty close to the front of the engine and I could not see the pulley well enough, so I had to unbolt the radiator and tilt it forward. This of course required temporarily fitting a longer top radiator tube, a nuisance but no option really.

Just a quickie,the pick-up should have an arrow on it,pointing to the plugs,connect the wrong way round and it gives crackers timing readings...

John

john.p.clegg wrote:Just a quickie,the pick-up should have an arrow on it,pointing to the plugs,connect the wrong way round and it gives crackers timing readings...

John

Aye, I noticed that and because the reading was wavering slightly I double checked the diagram in the instruction sheet to be sure that the arrow pointing towards the spark plug was the correct setting.

I have not (yet) tried it deliberately the wrong way around to observe the effect.