EdWills

Hello again Steven. I note that you already have the usa7s download - should have reread your post again- apologies. W

Hello Stevehello. The library on usa7s has the Caterham publication of the Lotus Seven 2,3 and 4 for reference, (or just the Series 4 at 'barnblinker.com'.), and a Series 4 owner by the name of Andrew Barron published what I would call a thesis on the Series 4. It was originally under the 'Connexions' web site, for free download, but 'Connexions' closed down.. I did find a trace of it at 'sevener.fr' (google: 'Lotus Seven Series 4 design analysis'.). I originally printed off some pages that I was interested in, and these are numbered 131 to 134, and Chapter 5, so Mr. Barron really went into detail about the Series 4. If you can find the article, it makes great reading. A noted authority on the Lotus Seven Series 4 is Hajo Steffen in Germany. He has a wealth of information regarding the Series 4, and was in contact with Alan Barrett of Lotus who provided him with photos and background about the car. Hajo is on Facebook Germany. Good luck with your project. Cheers W. P.S. $229.95 U.S. for a book? Phew, wonder why it hasn't been republished?

Hi @jmaz. Glad you have found what you were looking for. Apologies for lousy photo, but if the Gates 'T' piece doesn't work, the photo showing the Pex 'T' may be better? I have shown 1/2", but 3/4" the same. I totally agree with Scott that brass would be a better choice, the barbs will probably hold better, and the brass looks nicer. Cheers W.

Hi @jmaz. I have a few of these that I would be willing to send you for free, but the complicated postal system these days is too much to contend with. You don't mention the o.d. of the fittings required, but go to your local big box hardware store and look for 'Pex' fittings. They should be made of brass (sometimes chrome over brass?) and normally come manufactured for 1/2" pex pipe or 3/4" pipe. You may require metric size for your car, and if so, some Italian manufactured pex fitting may be available, but not sure. Here in Canada, although mostly metric, we rely on Imperial fitting sizes along with many other construction items also in Imperial measure. Cheers W.

Not particularly Lotus/Caterham related, but on holiday on Kauai, Hawaii last year, I needed to fill up our rental car before returning it to the airport. As a Costco member, I made use of the great prices and shopping available. At the Costco gas station, I tried 3 cards (one in U.S. Dollars) in order to pay for the gas. None of them worked, and I couldn't pump any gas. I noticed that an entirely different type of pump nozzle was attached to the hose of a type that I had never seen before. I returned to the store, and they confirmed that all of the cards were up-to-date, and should work. I tried again with no luck and even a very helpful lady customer also tried to help with no success. I went to the nearby Costco attendants booth, where a young 'surfer dude' Costco employee was keeping cool in his air conditioned cocoon. He came out to the vehicle, tried the cards - as I had done - which still would not allow him to pump any gas. He looked at the pump nozzle, and then gave it a very hard shove into the gas tank filler neck. He told me "Your nozzles not in far enough". I replied "My wife often tells me that"! He stared at me for a few seconds, then went back to his air conditioned comfort. I was then able to pump the gas. It appears that the 'new' nozzle has to make a very firm contact with the filler neck of a vehicle to allow the gas to be pumped. It cannot just be left loosely in the filler neck to work correctly. Not sure if this type of nozzle will become standard in the U.S. and Canada? I have not seen this particular type of nozzle since then, but our local Costco has fitted newer types of nozzles, but they are still of the type that the nozzle does not have to be all the way in to pump the gas. W. Tommy Cooper: "The local police arrested two bank robbers at their hide-out recently. One was drinking battery acid, and the other was chewing on a firework. They charged one, and let the other one off"

Thanks Scott. It's amazing to find that a number of car owners have asked this question on the web and there seems to be no conclusive answer. Even Ai suggests on older (vintage) cars, valve stem seals are not necessary, but it doesn't mention bronze guides. "I took a drive the other day, and parked the car to take a stroll. Came back to my car and a note on the windshield said "Parking Fine". It's great when someone congratulates you on your driving abilities".

At the risk of answering my own question, (but to put this post to bed?) I have checked a further couple of books by U.K. Ford Crossflow tuners, and the consensus seems to be that valve stem seals should be placed on the inlet valve at the very least, (to prevent carbon build-up in the head and inlet manifold), but on both valves is preferable. In my small collection of Ford Crossflow reference books, these stem seals are hardly mentioned, if at all. With double valve springs fitted, the original Ford factory 'umbrella' stem seals will not fit, but with single springs - which they were designed for - they will work as they were meant to. David Wallage in his book on tuning the Crossflow noted that some tuners install rubber 'O' rings on the stems for double springs, but he was not fond of this practice, although they will probably work o.k. I also found the 'Felpro' site and it shows the 2 main types of valve stem seal. I plan to stick with the Ford 'umbrella' stem seals (unless someone has other ideas), as they will help to limit too much oil going down the guide, but still allow some oil to splash on the stems for necessary lubrication. Cheers, W.

The web has a few car forums where owners of cars from small European sports cars to U.S. muscle cars inquire about using valve stem seals with silicon or manganese bronze valve guides. Some say yes, you should fit them, and others say no with a mix of reputable car mechanics advising either way. I have a Holbay Ford cylinder head that some describe as Stage II - fitted with larger 1.6" inlet valves, but not so large as to cause possible cracking between the inlet and exhaust valve seats. The head was new and based on an 1100 c.c. flat cylinder head as there is/was more metal available to grind away for porting (Note: recommendation of David Vizard many, many years ago to use an 1100 uprated flat head on the 1600 c.c. 711M Crossflow which I will be rebuilding). Holbay fitted harder exhaust seats for unleaded fuel, stainless steel valves, and silicon bronze valve guides. Double springs are fitted, but I am thinking of using singles. Holbay did not fit valve stem seals to the double springs. I checked with Burton a couple of years ago as I was considering using 'special' stem seals on the valves (with single springs), but Burton did not recommend using stem seals, as they believe that the valve stem and guide would not receive sufficient lubrication. Some say there is burnt oil smoke on start-up with no seals, and that this goes away quite quickly. Also mentioned was valve stem seizing if there is insufficient flow of oil due to the seals doing too fine of a job. I have read that tuners installing stainless valves fitted in silicon bronze guides normally specify minimum clearances from new, thereby requiring a good flow of oil. Has anybody with road or racing experience seen premature wear with stem seals fitted to bronze guides? I don't want to be trailing smoke and polluting the neighbourhood - even with a car that has no pollution control to speak of - so advice would be much appreciated. W

Hi @Rodnok. I have a pair of Lotus Seven windscreen stanchions made out of 1/8" steel exactly to the shape of the Lotus originals for free which you could use as a pattern, but I think that it may be a hassle for both of us to ship them from Canada to you unless you know of a way? All I would ask for is shipping cost. EW

@anduril3019 and @skou. I wondered where page 2 was, as I could never find it, guessing that the person who posted the drawings had omitted page 2 in error. I also found a set of drawings in 8.5" x 11" posted on the web courtesy of a company called 'Fisher and Paykel Ltd', (Laundry Division!?) for a Lotus Seven Series 3, metric measurements, with top and bottom front wishbones looking more like a Caterham or perhaps a Locost? George Cushing also provided a drawing for a Seven Series 2 on his site, and his Imperial measurements very closely match up with the ones I took from my old Universal Radiator frame. There are also a couple of pages of drawings on the Locost site with no credit provided for the person who drew them. They show all of the brackets required on a Seven frame, along with the necessary radius bends for the frame members, but again metric measurements. Just in the miscellaneous (useless?) information category, but in the mid 1980s, Lotus - in their official club magazine - were offering factory drawings for sale of a number of their sports and racing cars (I can't remember which cars, but from the Lotus 20 possibly up to the Lotus 77? John Donohoe may still have the copy of the magazine I sent to him?) The Seven was not included because Caterham had purchased the rights to the car (Series 3 and 4) in 1973. Even the 37 and the 7X were not included as the 37 frame would be almost identical to a Series 2/3 frame, and the 7X was a design by Mike Pilbeam, head draughtsman/designer of Lotus at the time, with the car based on a Series 4 with considerable modifications. Mike Pilbeam has retained the drawings in his personal collection. He was very helpful describing the frame, but could not locate the drawings when I inquired a few years ago. When it was realized by Lotus Legal Department that unlawful copies of the drawings could be reproduced, Lotus withdrew the offer on advice from their legal department. I also read in the magazine about a purchaser who complained about the cost of postage to send the drawings in a mailing tube to his U.K. address (12 shillings and sixpence at the time I seem to recall - probably less than $2.00 U.S. in today's money?). Lotus promptly refunded his payment and the drawings were not advertised again as far as I can determine. The Lotus Club magazines I had were published in 1983 and 1984, as one included the commemoration of Colin Chapman (following his death in December 1982), and Lotus at the 1983 Silverstone GP, when a number of different models of Lotus Cars completed a circuit of the track prior to the G.P. I was fortunate to obtain a pit pass at this race, and took photos of many of the different Lotus Models lined up at the end of the paddock. W.

Scott. As you know, I'm as vintage as the Lotus Seven, so I did wonder if these pdfs would work! I can send them to your email if you want them? W.

Pat Prince Lotus 7 S2_Sheet 3.pdfPat Prince Lotus 7 S2_Sheet 1.pdfHi Scott. There was a similar set of drawings on the Facebook Lotus Historic Register. A contributor on Locost USA downloaded a similar set from Pat Prince, who dissected a Series 2 frame, and took as many measurements as he could. Pat Prince took over the work of DSK when the owners folded the company. I'll attach the files here and hope that they download? With thanks and recognition of the locost usa forum. W Pat Prince Lotus 7 S2_Sheet 4.pdf Pat Prince Lotus 7 S2_Sheet 5.pdf Pat Prince Lotus 7 S2_Sheet 6.pdf Pat Prince Lotus 7 S2_Sheet 7.pdf Pat Prince Lotus 7 S2_Sheet 8.pdf Pat Prince Lotus 7 S2_Sheet 9.pdf

That's why Rob Cox-Allison named his racing 7 in the U.K. 'Black Brick' due to its colour and its less than desirable aerodynamics. Although he added spoilers front and rear, and fitted a hard top, he was seriously compromised on speed. Tom Robertson added a spoiler to the nose cone of his championship winning Lotus Seven in 1977 (and beat the more streamlined TR7s of the Triumph team), but it seems that Lotus in the U.K. never went this route. Many racers there and in North America kept the clam shells, and the couple of Lotus factory racers (Type 37 and 7X) never fitted spoilers or made the cars more aerodynamic as-built from the factory. When Tim Goss drove the race winning 7X, the nose cone that originally appeared on the car (and was very similar to the Series 4), was later given more of a droop, but otherwise remained as factory assembled. Barry Foley then took it over and rebuilt the car making it much more streamlined, but looking nothing like a Seven of any stripe. W.

Also, sad to read of the death of Chuck Negron of Three Dog Night a few days ago from heart failure and COPD. She who must be obeyed and myself really enjoy listening to this band. Floyd Sneed, who passed away in 2023, was Calgary, Alberta, born and raised. His family was one of the first to settle in Alberta under a programme to entice U.S. farmers to settle in the prairies. W

Hello Henry. I have just checked the library and your file is there, apologies for not checking before.. I have just measured an old set from a Lotus Seven Series 3 (same as later Series 2 cars), and the measurement, with spring, from perch to perch is as noted in your file - 9 inches. The measurement from the centre of the top mount to the centre of the bottom mount on my set is 12-3/4 inches plus or minus (one was 12-5/8", the other 12-3/4"). Some of the springs supplied to Lotus to mount on the Armstrong dampers were known to sag (according to Lotus). Trust this helps @Bill W