SENC

Have been accumulating bits to rebuild the starter for my Seven - a Lucas M35G-1. I got lucky and found a NOS armature so don't have to try cleaning up the old one on my wood lathe. Would love some advice from those of you who've rebuilt these before - both any general advice and tips but also have a few specific questions: Any recommendations on removing the drive end bushing? Also need to clean up the body. The coils look just fine, can't think of a good reason to dismantle further. I assume a bath in kerosene or mineral spirits is the best path and wouldn't hurt anything inside? Last, any guidance on removing and replacing the brushes? I plan try to desolder them but not sure how crammed in that tube they are nor how to work the replacements back in.

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2009-lotus-caterham-super-seven/ not mine, but timely.

Well, the original pushbutton "manual solenoid" under the dash, but not a coil-solenoid.

Fortunately the ring gear looks ok, at least what I can see through the "window": It is an M35G-1 starter, built in 6/65 so probably the right/original one for the car. I'm going to start searching for parts for a rebuild. Didn't look too bad internally when I took it apart for quick inspection, but definitely well-used.

No more playing and testing today, couldn't get the engine to turn over though starter clearly ran. Wonder why...

Similarly, as I've watched solar farms sprout where pine farms and corn/bean/tobacco fields once were, I've wondered about the cost of cleanup in 20-25 years. I suspect one day we'll get there with renewables, but I'm not convinced we're there yet.

Not defending the valuation (I think it is absurd), but EBITDA is a profitability measure not a revenue measure, rights? With $3b in EBITDA that puts them at a valuation over 75xEBIDTA, crazy territory in my opinion particularly given their track record. GM has 3-4x that much EBITDA and trades at 6xEBITDA (don't think I'd buy that, either). In my opinion this is a pure speculative bet that Tesla will do what Amazon has done. Amazon now has well over $30b in EBITDA and though still highly valued (over 30xEBITDA) it is down from prior years where it was trading at well into the 100s times EBITDA - in essence it has finally grown profitability to begin to match its value. If Tesla can do the same, though overvalued now it will look cheap in the future. I'm not making that bet.

As is so often the case with old cars, messing with one thing to fix another just leads to problems. In this case, trying to clear the "new" breather draft tube I crossthreaded the connection back to the fuel pump so when I cycled the starter to get it pumping it sprayed gas. Though I had an old one (from my Elan) and a spare gasket in my toolbox as an emergency backup, when installed the old pump it filled nicely to the carbs, then promptly began leaking (old glass bowl gasket had hardened). So a couple weeks of waiting on parts, but finally carved out a couple hours on Saturday and got it put back together and running, and started testing different idle jets and main wet/dry jets. Got a great idle, tips in very well at WOT above 2k rpm, and pulls like a train above 3k rpm. Just a little stumble when hitting WOT below about 1800 rpm, but plan to tweak a little more. This is also still on the Bosch distributor, about which I know little about the advance curve built in - but now that I have it close I'll switch over to the rebuilt original Lucas and see what fits the engine better. I realize it doesn't have the hp of the current crop of Sevens, but it really is an amazing little car, you just can't help but smile everytime you put your foot in the accelerator.:driving::driving::driving: Makes me sad I waited this long for a Seven!

:smilielol5: what next, a fuel gauge?

This thread needs pictures!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lotus-7X-Independent-rear-race-clubman-Magnesium-everything/303600659642?hash=item46b0026cba%3Ag%3AtCsAAOSweh5e7Kc0&LH_Auction=1&fbclid=IwAR1CIuMWoZCH2CqoVDt-tRBJYsTxF6Om4Ad_CaPzSJElKtx63wcko6YQes4

Well covered by the last 2 posts. Here is a snippet from Ortenburger's Legend of the Lotus Seven on the topic:

Yes, well, we all have to get our demons out somewhere!

Looks great John! Frustrating when 1 bolt that should be there is not, I sure know that feeling!!!!

Between replacing old with new mixture screws and a bit of ezturn fuel lube, I seem to have knocked most of the afterfire. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to do much experimenting with different main fuel/air jets or idle jets to find the best fit for this engine due to a cracked neck in my swirlpot (revealed as a nice vertical spray when I removed the thermostat and made the swirlpot to head connection leakproof). Mick Beveridge at XtraSpecialSevens makes a spot-on replacement, which I hope to have in hand this week. In the meantime, I got my draft tube and elbow installed - had to replace an oddly bent SS fuel pipe with a piece of cunifer to keep them from fouling, and the original breather in my engine isn't a perfect fit so probably not intended for the elbow, but with a little rtv I think it will work (will be better than spraying mist straight up, regardless, will see whether enough draft to pull air and gases out). I may change to a later Cortina/Capri breather "box" if this doesn't work as I hope.

Thanks for the civil dialogue, Shane and Mike, not common these days and I'm learning from both of you. Thank you.

Great looking Seven!

With just a little common sense and respect for others, I believe we could be doing a lot more than we're doing AND have fewer cases and spread. Good on your midOhio group.

...but only good if you're positive earth

Fantastic!

Dizzy was pretty clean,, but could use some new points. Also replaced the HT leads after finding one with much higher resistance than the rest (though still under 12k ohms). Made some good progress on the running today, thanks to some help from Keith Franck and others. Surprisingly found a primary contributor to my afterfire/popping were the replacement idle mix adjustment screws that came with my rebuild kit. The newer ones are more narrowly tapered than the older, blunter screws - and it seems they were letting in a good bit of air. Going back to the old ones almost completely eliminated the afterfire. Also tried Keith's non-frothing emulsion tube replacements - they had a huge impact on lowering the transition point at which the main jets kick in and went a long way towards eliminating the sub-3k rpm flat spot. I still have some tweaking to do but quite happy.

Thanks guys. I'm back to focusing on the timing - starting with dwell, which was a bit lower than expected when I checked. I'm going to pull the scorcher/bosch distributor apart tomorrow and make sure the advance weights and springs are clean and moving easily, reset the points gap, and make sure there isn't too much play in the spindle. I've also realized I've been misinterpreting the timing marks on the chest as TDC when they really represent 10 degrees BTDC. So, I've been starting with too much advance and don't know how the distributor in place was setup - too many variables, no wonder I can't set my carbs right! I'll keep horsing with it while waiting for some new leads from magnecor for the Lucas dizzy, maybe I'll come on it by luck. I have some of Keith Franck's latest emulsion tubes to try out, too, but really want to maximize stock first so I have a good basis for evaluating his tubes. It is really hard with these cars to stick with just changing one thing at a time!

https://www.finn.no/car/used/ad.html?finnkode=179875681&taid=Share_ad_facebook&fbclid=IwAR24bUu0QUpu1dTG6Cn8u9ozSy_D9HqCegkpXuymS_izCDQUnX6RX1qIJpY

Good results on compression test. Got close on tuning, but still have some afterfire. I know the scorcher/bosch distributor is a good one, but I don't have any idea what advance should be to compare against. I have rebuilt the original lucas and it has been tested for the correct advance curve, just need to get and make some leads. Other than the afterfire popping, it is running pretty well. And looks ok, too.