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I just checked my car. Same battery, starter, and ECU as your car, but it's a 2.4L and has 12:1 pistons. My Easimap and at-the-battery readings were both about 13.2v before cranking, but only dropped to 10.5v. The only other difference I can think of on my car that could affect this reading is I'm running a slightly larger, 4-gauge 12v+ battery cable. I believe the stock cable is 6 gauge. It might be worth double checking your battery connections to ensure everything is up to spec. -John

Ah, thanks for the update. I was really hoping for a TX car! I’ll have to keep thinking about it. My work brings me to Chandler every now and again. If it’s still available on my next visit, maybe I’ll think about renting a truck/trailer and save my company the flight home. 🙂

The car is in Scottsdale Arizona. It is now registered here. I was searching for a good picture when I was posting the ad and found one that still had the TX plate. Car had to pass smog to get AZ license. Guys at smog test center weren’t sure how to process it. The manager came out and did the test himself. I prefer not to sell the seats separately. I will sell the trailer separately, however. $51,500/$4,500 for car/trailer, respectively. I figure I will move the listing to BAT soon but am hopeful a USA7s member might want to get the car first.

@S1Steve had LowFlyin on his S1. I was banned in NJ from that one.

Only halfway down second drink here. I have some great ideas already. I had SE7EN in NJ on my old yellow Caterham? What about 3MINS? Quite flexible - lap time, patience, breakdown interval, bedroom,…..

Be afraid. Be very afraid. Rumor is @Croc is going for at least 5 drinks tonight -John

Based on this commentary regarding 'bad crank tooth pattern' being expected on first/last engine rotations (since they are partial), I'm going to bet that the wiring isn't swapped: https://www.sbdmotorsport.co.uk/app/uploads/2020/11/Helpful_hints_when_starting_your_engine.pdf

Great one, but taken What have I started

I have an ATX12 in my 420R without issues.

For you? Let me get a second drink down for inspiration and a third for comedy…

SE7EN

Pair of new, uninstalled Bilstein shocks with Caterham coil springs. For SV chassis these are used on the 420 models with the "Sport" suspension but will fit all SV models. Over 370 GBP from Caterham EACH! DAMPER AND SPRING FRONT 420 ROAD SPECIFICATION - Caterham Parts $600.00 for the pair from us plus shipping at cost. Questions? rick@timemachinesauto.com or 716.812.3938 Lots more to come, cleaning out our storage!

9.5v sounds a little low. I know that the Emerald ECU requires a little more than 9v (don't recall the exact value) in order to operate. I wonder if you are hovering around or below the min mark for the 9A4? I'll try to check the voltages on my car later today to see if they differ substantially from what you reported.

Miata prices have been crazy last 3 months 150k mile NA miatas with rust are selling for 6k+

Flipped the polarity on the crank sensor with a couple clips and some safety wire. No more "bad tooth pattern alerts", but also no engine start, so I'm not sure that's anything definitive.

Good to know re:ATX-20; I'm leaning toward keeping it. Easimap shows ~13v before cranking, drops to ~9.5v, whilst meter shows 13v/10.5v respectively. In the course of trying to ferret this out, I added a second ground cable (so stock one from bellhousing to chassis bolt hole, and another from an m8 hole on the left front of the engine block to the top sump tank bolt. ECU plug is seated well. Nothing visibly amiss at sensor plug, main loom coupler or ECU connector.

Bumping this ancient thread. Anybody new have any new good ideas? XLGOKART is taken in my state..

For anyone who was doubting the authenticity, now it's confirmed as a "Super" 7!

And for those that asked about the ‘medallion’ on the scuttle cover . . . . Ian

Found this too! It’ll look good in the collection on the wall! I wonder if the AZ DMV has any records . . . The more I dig in to this pile of parts the more certain I am of its complete authenticity. I am very confused as the why the ‘arbiters of originality’ were so convinced I should not buy this car. Just because the plate is missing/misplaced doesn’t minimize the originality of the vehicle. I do understand that the Lotus Chassis number that this frame number was connected to in the Lotus Records is currently running around somewhere, so a totally authentic ‘plate’! Alternatively, the title that I have only a photo of and is one number later, 19 Vs 18, is what it was on the Lotus plate and therefor issued by the State of Arizona. It’s not beyond Lotus to mix up the numbers! My Elan was wrongly recorded too! Very confusing! Ian

I have that same battery in my car, and it has started a few times with no issues (new build and not yet driven). What voltage is Easimap showing before you crank and what about while you are cranking? Does that differ from multimeter readings at the battery? Is the engine block ground connection ok? Also, make sure the plug to the ECU is fully seated and verify the crank sensor connector pins are all fully seated within the plugs. I've seen the latter issue with a different sensor on a 420R engine loom cause some problems. -John

A nice discovery when unpacking a box last night! All the original lights are present and all in very nice condition! I heard the rear lights are not available so I’m very happy to have original parts. Ian

Hi, It needs a full ‘rebuild’, some parts need a full restoration. Some parts are in really surprisingly good condition and just need a good clean - years of Arizona dust! The chassis need a fair bit of work. There are missing sections, some that are damaged, a few that have been added that are just crap! The roll hoop for example; I think it was made of gas pipe as I found some threads on on end of a diagonal! Sawzall time!

Hey, all. I'm working on the last few build tasks for a 420R kit, and while the posts I've read regarding these symptoms seem to point to the crank sensor, I thought I'd lob my experience out to this forum for opinions. Symptoms: Good: engine cranks like crazy fuel pump is getting fuel to the rail fine Bad: no fuel in engine (so injectors not opening at all -- I 'burped' the air out of the fuel line by disconnecting it at the rail) no spark Weird: obdc reports a myriad of sensor faults inconsistently, but with themes suggesting low voltage in the ECU control plane, including occasionally reporting more explicitly "<foo> sensor low" or even "low system voltage" after a lot of cranking. I think some of these could be explained as downstream symptoms -- e.g. baro pressure will be low if the engine isn't firing, right? MBE985 cable -> easimap6 reports "Bad crank tooth pattern"...which seems a bit more on point, but I'm not sure what to do about it apart from replacing the sensor I've checked continuity back to the ECU for all plug, injector and crank sensor wires; all checks out, correct pin assignments, etc. There's a sub-plot here that I'm very curious about: the use of lithium batteries. Originally, I'd swapped out the stock Banner lead/acid for an Antigravity ATX-20 (680CCA/20Ah). Then I found this: https://sbdmotorsport.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Helpful-hints-Battery-Voltage-Issues.pdf and immediately reverted to stock, thinking I'd found the smoking gun. No dice. The idea that the starter could starve the ECU voltage-wise made some sense, and I noted that while the CCA metric for the ATX battery is more than adequate, the Ah rating was 2/3 of the stock battery (less overall energy stored), so the SBD article looked like a plausible root cause was indeed the lithium battery....that is, until I borrowed an MBE985 cable from a friend with an ATX-12 (480CCA/16Ah) happily powering his caterham without issues. To me this suggests that the SBD caveat is probably spot-on for grossly underpowered lithium batteries, but maybe not for the ATX-20. Until I get this engine running, my plan is to leave the stock battery in place, just to have one less variable, but I'm interested in hearing other folks' opinions on lithium options like the ATX-20. Apart from the expense, there shouldn't really be any drawbacks, AIUI. As to the current impasse with getting the engine running, I'm going to fiddle with the crank sensor a bit, but apart from the ECU itself, or power to it, I'm kind of out of ideas...