Ride Height

[Steve_Lindford]

Im happy with their approach to the test - and I expect some sort of problems with a car which I purchased without x-ray eyes! Bit of a worry about the oil leak - as I suspect it has been driven with low oil in the gearbox for a while. I should have measured how much came out when I drained it - but never thought - perhaps it is better not to know...

Actually I knew about the nyloc nut not reaching - and I thought I would keep an eye on it - paint a stripe across to see if it had moved. As I stated - the next size down is 8mm high which will have less threads on it but the nyloc part will reach. The suggestion they made to me is get a longer bolt - but it will be easier if I use a smaller nut.

Will try and get them to test it again on Friday. Does anyone know if the oil seal at the clutch end can be replaced without splitting the gearbox??

[BDA]

In that application, it doesn't matter if you get a longer bolt or a shorter nut just so long as the locking part is fully engaged. The bolt is in shear (double shear at that). Aircraft nuts are available in full height and half height - the half height for shear applications.

[4129R]

Im happy with their approach to the test - and I expect some sort of problems with a car which I purchased without x-ray eyes! Bit of a worry about the oil leak - as I suspect it has been driven with low oil in the gearbox for a while. I should have measured how much came out when I drained it - but never thought - perhaps it is better not to know...

Actually I knew about the nyloc nut not reaching - and I thought I would keep an eye on it - paint a stripe across to see if it had moved. As I stated - the next size down is 8mm high which will have less threads on it but the nyloc part will reach. The suggestion they made to me is get a longer bolt - but it will be easier if I use a smaller nut.

Will try and get them to test it again on Friday. Does anyone know if the oil seal at the clutch end can be replaced without splitting the gearbox??

Drill the nut and stud and put a split pin through it. (Or lockwire)

[EuropaTC]

Does anyone know if the oil seal at the clutch end can be replaced without splitting the gearbox??

I don't know that one Steve, but I'm sure someone on here has had the gearbox apart at some time. My memory is hazy but for some reason I thought the primary input shaft (presumable where the leak is ?) was higher than the filler plug. Overfilling is clutching at straws I know, but it's my way of going about problems I don't like.....   

Best of luck for tomorrow, I'm sure you're going to be getting on to the DVLA's website on Friday afternoon to get your free road tax !

Brian

[Steve_Lindford]

Drill the nut and stud and put a split pin through it. (Or lockwire)

Im not planning to do this - as there is an easier solution BUT - if I was - wouldn't I have to drill the bolt when removed from the car - then I wouldn't know where to drill the nut until it was screwed onto the bolt on the car.

The other reason for going for a shorter nut is I don't have to suffer muscle pain in my neck and shoulder when I remove and replace the tension on the shock spring. I found it a tiresome job winding the spring up.

The garage said the reason the leak has become apparent is that the oil gets sloshed around as the gears rotate - and warm. Would it be sensible to do the clutch and bearing when I get the gearbox off??

Look forward to getting on the DVLA website - and increasing the number of Europas on the road!

[lotusfanatic]

Steve,

if you had a castellated nut that is the best way...

tighten the nut to the required torque figure, then, using a sharp carbide drill, mark the bolt at the most accessible slot in the nut (drill slightly away from the bottom of the slot)

remove the nut/bolt and reassemble in a vice, line up the mark on the bolt with the relevant slot, drill through the bolt and use the opposite slot as a guide (also keeping the hole level)     

then reassemble, although you may find that you don't always get the slots to line up again despite going to the same torque setting (try other nuts to see if one lines up)

Mark   

[jbcollier]

With the car off the ground, there is no "spring tension" on the suspension.  Do it properly and fit a longer bolt.  It is literally a two minute job.  Please do support the car on jack stands.  Lost a customer who didn't.  It wasn't pretty.

You have to remove the bell housing to change the input shaft seal.  You do not need to "split the cases".

[Steve_Lindford]

I would have put money on the fact that the suspension would push down through the wishbones - and it would be impossible to get another bolt through without a lot of messing about - but that is not to say that I wouldn't want to do the job properly. Annoyingly it seems I will have to sort out the gearbox before I can enjoy the car - but compared to the amount of work some people commit to on this forum - I have got off lightly...

[EuropaTC]

I would have put money on the fact that the suspension would push down through the wishbones - and it would be impossible to get another bolt through without a lot of messing about -

No, as John says, it doesn't work like that. The spring is contained within the confines of the damper, all that will happen is that if you jack it up and let the suspension go to full droop it is the length of the damper piston rod that determines how much extension the spring gets.  Your adjustable platforms won't make any difference and you won't have to re-adjust them afterwards. Slipping the bolt out and replacing won't be any trouble at all, in fact it would be far quicker than trying to drill and use wire to hold it in place.

Personally I'd replace the bolt because it's very simple to do.  However.... with an MoT re-test looming I could be persuaded to put a thinner nut on to get past that obstacle.

Best of luck with the re-test.

Brian

ps - thoughts on the oil leaks - is there a breather on your gearbox & is it clear ?

[Steve_Lindford]

MOT passed - so I am road legal now that I have registered the car. Unfortunately it doesn't change the statistics on this website:

https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=lotus+europa&commit=Search

as it records SORN (off the road) vehicles - which mine was before. - So there is no way of actually knowing how many are on the road - rather than in a garage for years.

The MOT was not conditional on me replacing the nut. In fact the original nut was a short one - and that is probably how it was designed. As for the gearbox - the only breather I am aware of is that little metal bucket shaped thing at the rear - approx 10mm in diameter...

Steve

[Steve_Lindford]

OOps I was wrong about that website - if you click on an individual car type it gives further information...

[4129R]

So 116 taxed + 91 off road in the UK.

How come I never see one being driven or parked?

[BDA]

I guess that site is only for Brit Loti?

[3929R]

So 116 taxed + 91 off road in the UK.

OR is it 116+19+48+51=234 total on the road
116 (Europa) + 19 (Europa S2) + 48 (Europa Special) + 51 (Europa Twin Cam) = 234 (All old Europas regardless of how the variant is listed on the title)?

[EuropaTC]

So 116 taxed + 91 off road in the UK.

OR is it 116+19+48+51=234 total on the road
116 (Europa) + 19 (Europa S2) + 48 (Europa Special) + 51 (Europa Twin Cam) = 234 (All old Europas regardless of how the variant is listed on the title)?

I've assumed that's the way it works. If you drill down into the models as Steve says it also gives the number of cars declared SORN - Statutory Off Road Notice for you guys over the pond.  If you had a car off road before 1998 when SORN was introduced and it's neither been sold or registered since then it won't be in those numbers. Pure track/race cars won't feature in the list either.  So there's potentially a few more cars hidden away in barns.

The SORN category swells it a bit, 90(Europa) + 16 (S2) + 30 (TCS) + 40 (TC) = 176, making just over 400 cars known about inside the UK.