Father / son project

[blasterdad]

Well, put the new points & condenser in tonight, along with 4 new plugs & coil wire. Cranked her over & behold,
 BRIGHT BLUE SPARK !!!  Gravity fed some gas to the carb, worked the throttle till the accelerator pump started squirting, & gave it a try. Got a little bit of smoke out of the exhaust & that was it. Checked the plugs & they were dry... Put a little gas in the cylinders, replaced the plugs, tried again & nothing. I'll recheck the point gap tomorrow, & check the exhaust pipe for more mouse nests, (already took the muffler off & didn't see any). At least we have spark now, which I'm happy with for tonight! Maybe Halloween will be a more fitting day for her to rise from the dead anyway...

[BDA]

Congratulations on your blue spark!!! How are your plug wires? Are you getting a spark from each plug or plug wire?  Have you done a  compression test? You may have to take the carb(s) apart and make sure it isn't gummed up with varnish from the fuel.

Let us know what happens tomorrow! Good luck!

[EuropaTC]

   Good news and progress. Always nice to see something positive happening. 

Is the spark arriving at the right time ? Are the plugs wet or dry ?  The other thing I usually try is squirting something called "easy start" over here directly into the carbs. It smells like ether, highly volatile and just the thing for starting up long-dead engines. If it won't fire on that then it's usually a timing issue.  But if it fires then a couple of shots usually gets it enthusiastic enough to run on normal fuel and then you're away.

A definite 

Brian

[blasterdad]

Today I checked the points & regapped them, checked all 4 plugs & wires, (good spark to all), checked the exhaust for mouse nests, (all clear), squirted some gas into the intake with my handy curved syringe I kept from the dentist and had my son crank her over. After some cranking and fiddling with the timing she started to fire, slowly at first until she finally cleaned out and started to run! Now that we knew she wanted to run I hooked the gas back up to the carb, (2 stroke pre-mix from my Yamaha Blaster, 32:1 Klots Super Techniplate w/benol castor racing oil, GREAT STUFF!) and cranked her up!
That is where the first video starts, you'll notice me trying to choke the carb with one hand & keep moving the distributor back with the other as it was loose & kept turning on me, .
The second video is of her actually running after I tightened the distributor down, (still having to choke the carb with my hand because the carb is shot).
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdqCn8rV33U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCEw7G9-G9E 

[jbcollier]

Probably the jets are plugged.  The idle newts are especially prone to this as they are quite small.  Take the top off, take out all the jets (making note of which goes where) including the two idle jets on the side and the idle mix screw, clean out the float bowel, same with the jets and give all the passages a good blow.

[BDA]

That sounds wonderful! (I know it will sound better whey it's all tuned up)

Congratulations on getting it fired up! To amplify on John's suggestion, you might want to soak the carb body and jets in carb cleaner while it's all apart. Then reassemble with new gaskets, etc.

[blasterdad]

Probably the jets are plugged.  The idle newts are especially prone to this as they are quite small.  Take the top off, take out all the jets (making note of which goes where) including the two idle jets on the side and the idle mix screw, clean out the float bowel, same with the jets and give all the passages a good blow.

Without a doubt, this will be our next step. My son has already seen me rebuild carbs, but this time I'm going to show him how to do it. Still plan on getting a new one but want him to learn how to fix things without just throwing money at it!

[blasterdad]

Now that our S2 is running, I noticed an oil leak from the camshaft bearing housing. The manual shows installation of this during a complete rebuild. It shows it being installed with a special tool to "spread the lips of the seal". It doesn't show the seal itself as to it's relevant position in the assembly. To me, logic would dictate that it would be installed last, on the outside of the assembly. My question is, can this seal be replaced without removing the bearing housing? (which I'm pretty sure would be a very bad idea, given the load placed on it from the valve springs & lifters.)

[jbcollier]

Yes, it is a simple seal to replace.  Remove the pulley, pry the old one out and bung the new one in.

[blasterdad]

Yes, it is a simple seal to replace.  Remove the pulley, pry the old one out and bung the new one in.

Thanks JB, that's what I was hoping for. Found one on fleabay & it looked like that was all there was to it, but wasn't sure. 

[blasterdad]

Got the Lotus up on jackstands yesterday, & was able to get a good look underneath it for the first time.
The frame midsection & front end appear to be solid, with only minor surface rust.
The midsection had been sealed with some kind of undercoating which was so old it pulled off easily by hand.
Was finally able to get some pics of the damaged radius arms, (best I could).

Drivers side....






Passenger side...





Driver side is so bad it's moved the wheel forward & tilted in, while the passenger side is not as bad, it needs to be replaced also.
A word to the wise, NEVER jack or support on these, this will be the result! 

[BDA]

Yup, those are not approved places to use jacks or jack stands. I can almost understand somebody trying it. There just aren't that many good places to use stands in the rear unless you have very tall ones. I always jack up from the tranny and support it with a small stool or similar at the rear hoop.

You have two choices. The workshop manual gives the dimensions. You could fab up some replacements or buy a new set. If you buy them, I'm sure Richard has them (http://www.banks-europa.co.uk/). Ray at r.d. might have them. Dave Bean might have them (http://www.davebean.com/). Sports Car World will also likely have them (http://www.sportscarworld-lotus.com/ - call them because their website isn't much). If you fabricate your own, you could make something really trick made with tubing and spherical rod ends, etc.

Good luck!

[blasterdad]

Thanks BDA, found a pair at Sports Car World, Hoping Santa will have room in his sleigh for them!

[BDA]

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you, but make sure you leave some milk and cookies for Santa and some carrots for the reindeer! That's used to work pretty well when I was a kid!

[blasterdad]

Good news first...
Ordered new windshield (Pilkington Classics), Weber carb, carb filter, and pressure regulator
on Friday.
Bad news...
PayPal screws up order, (terminal error) charges me 10 times for the carb, (which never got ordered) resulting in my bank cancelling my credit card, issuing me a different one, (that didn't work) effectively screwing up ALL the orders. 
Finally got it all sorted out this morning just in time to make it to the dentist so he could pull the rest of my teeth out! 
So, new parts & new teeth on the way!