SENC

He is the oldest son, still a toddler at the time. As I somewhat expected, drilling 1/32" holes through stainless is above my capability and facility, so after a failed attempt and a few bits I decided to groove the bar slightly and use e-rings. I think that will work fine and maybe look cleaner, but I also made a rod from mild steel that I drilled and polished as a backup. Did a dry fit and part check, perhaps get everything back together next weekend.]

Carburetors cleaned up and back together, with only 1 additional surprise. I somehow missed on disassembly that 1 of the air correctors in the main jet assembly was different than the others (should be 180s, one was a 160 - so obviously someone has been in the back carb). I've ordered a set of 180s, they are fairly inexpensive and may as well make sure none of the others were altered. The originals are in the carburetors for now, a simple swap when the new ones arrive. The throttle linkage cleaned up nicely, but the main rod and brass bushings for the manifold were both highly worn, so I cut some new bushings and a piece of ss rod to replace them, just need to drill the rod for cotter pins. Also took advantage of the weather to pull out the little yellow car to drive the next few days - feels quite refined after driving the Seven!

Helicoiled the bottom screw on the back carb, got everything laid out for reassembly. Got a great surprise from an Australian Lotus fanatic who has been helping me try to find the original owner (along with several here). We learned the original owner had passed, but that his wife at the time is still alive and today Mike emailed me scans of a couple pictures she sent him. Great fun to see some history (these are circa 1966), and to learn the car left Cheshunt green with a red nose (their records had indicated red, which I'd assumed had been aluminum and red).

I, too, would like to see more case flattening, but I'm really thankful it hasn't gone vertical or been more widespread and hope that will continue to be the case. Also hoping the rate of growth continues to taper, I really need a haircut soon!

https://www.racecarsdirect.com/Advert/Details/112842/caterham-420-race-spec-with-trailer

The 3/4 carburetor cleaned up nicely, but the no luck with the bottom plate screw remains, even with further drilling. Didn't have a 5mm .8 helicoil and couldn't find one locally, so waiting for Amazon and boxed the bits up for now. The 1/2 carburetor disassembled more easily and completely, will clean it tomorrow.

Stripping the carburetor for 3&4, no major hangups yet other than the seized and broken screw in the bottom plate. Have drilled that successfully but even with heat and broil it isn't budging, yet. Hoping it will loosen with the hot ultrasonic cleaning as my next largest drill is likely to begin taking some threads (I wasn't perfectly centered). At any rate, a couple of pictures - had definitely sat a while, and frankly not sure how it was running as well as it was with the intake blockage. I'll definitely be adding an online filter between pump and carb.

Carbs, intake manifold and exhaust manifold removed. Carbs were tightly mounted to the intake manifold, completely flattening the o-ring. Is this correct, or should it be a soft mount with thackerys or the like? Insides look pretty good except for signs of a fuel leak and a little corrosion on #1. Tested all of the screws on the carbs to see if any would be a problem - all loosened easily EXCEPT, of course, one on the bottom plate on the back carb that broke off. Another on that bottom plate had corrosion about half-way, so guess some condensation from heat cycles. Now to figure out how to get the remains out without butchering it. Have it soaking in Kroil for now.

Weber components from the Lotus 7 workshop manual, might be helpful to others as well...

Thanks John! EDIT: Started reading and it sounded a bit familiar - here is another version I found but with better pictures. https://cnx.org/contents/oKbaEWQ3@2/Selection-and-Tuning-of-Weber-DCOE-Carburetors

Started the tuning/tinkering process today. Plugs in place are NGK BP7ES, gaps pretty close. Replaced with BP6ES to get a bit hotter plug and to hopefully reduce fouling while staying at lower revs. Pulled the distributor, also looks pretty good. Checked and slightly adjusted the points, and cleaned things up a bit smearing the cam with a touch of grease and a drop of oil in the spindle. No obvious wear, but I'm not at all familiar with this distributor - looks to be an Aussie-modded Bosch - can any of the Australian crowd comment on it? A known or good rebuilder? The car came with the original Lucas distributor, which I've had the Distributor Doctor check out and rebuild for me - checked out well and he made sure it had the appropriate advance curve for the Cosworth 1500 engine, so I'll go back with that once I get some cables made - but in the meantime reinstalled the Scorcher/Bosch. Took it for a short spin to warm things up and took a couple turns at adjusting the timing - ended up reducing the advance just a little over a few short runs. The engine feels pretty peppy, some very slight stumbling at very low revs. Notable exhaust afterfire popping when holding steady just below 3k rpm and on lift. Have started studying up on the Webers - and would certainly welcome any advice from the experts here. In the meantime, will pop the wheels back off to check all of my suspension and brake nuts and bolts now that they've been on the road a few miles.

Winner!

Almost jinxed myself - doing a final run through before lowering the car I found out the hard way I hadn't set the clutch fork fully when installing a replacement slave cylinder, and promptly pushed the piston right out of the cylinder, along with all the fluid. Fortunately, that wasn't too long a fix so I actually did get a couple trips around the neighborhood. Started fairly easily and held a cold idle well with a minimum of revving. First trip just around the block nice and slow in 1st gear to let things warm up, including a quick visit with my neighbor across the street who ran out to see. After a check on the fluids and a slight adjustment to the distributor as it seemed slightly advanced (no, I haven't pulled out the timing light, yet), I took my second journey - about a mile in total. Was able to get all gears (though barely 4th as I was not in a place for speed) and car ran ok, though sputtering and backfiring a bit on lifting off the accelerator, so next step is to check plugs, play with the timing, and learn to tune Webers (my Elan has Strombergs). Here she is cooling after her brief journey: Here is a link to that journey, if you're really bored and need to fill 30 seconds.

Alignment in process... is a trip around the block possible today?

well said!

Ray at rdent.com in the US and Steve at sjsportscars in the UK had them, at last check. Not cheap, though.

Actually, that would be exceptionally good news, in that mortality and complication rates would be much, much lower and we'd have a larger population than expected with antibodies. I suspect, as usual, the truth lies somewhere in between. Our testing and mitigation efforts, in most parts of the country, are actually pretty good - we'll see whether they yield good results or whether we all face a NYC-type of crisis. Either way, I don't think we're headed towards the hundreds of thousands or millions of deaths as predicted by some of the commentary that went viral - at least I hope not!

Hooyah!

Coming together. New brake lines came with a banjo fitting on the caliper end and couldn't find any 3/8 banjo bolts locally, so had to order them, but otherwise about ready to get her back on her own wheels.

I had the same thought!

oh dear, there's bound to be a rule here against such punnery. :puke: :rofl:

Got the bearings out while waiting on the poly trunnion bushes - didn't look awful, but it was definitely time. Still plenty of grease in the hub but signs of water and dirt and some very minor corrosion on a couple of the races suggested long periods of moisture and lack of use.

Spot-on advice, thanks for sharing it. The media and social media hysteria is not helpful as it is all about one extreme or the other. There is nothing to freak out about, but there could be if we don't take significant steps to at least slow the spread.

A bit heretical I know, but I'm a proud trunnion-greaser on my Elan and will be on the Seven, too. There have been some great discussions on this over the years at lotuselan.net, and I'm in the camp that grease is technically a better solution that oil for these limited movement applications and haven't found any legitimate argument for oil other than that the original manual said so. I suspect as many others do that the issue at the time was that grease tended to clot and harden, but that doesn't happen now (at least with good grease), and with grease when I reload I'm pushing contaminants out that were "blocked" by grease nearest the seal whereas with oil any contaminants that got beyond the seal into the oil have mixed. I'll take my lashing now.