Timothy Keith-Lucas

Hmmm. If the trailer/Caterham combination were to be stored off site, you want an enclosed trailer. By going to the manufacturer I got a 7x12 single axle enclosed trailer that can barely be towed by my wife's Dodge Grand Caravan (everything close to capacity) with either her Model T or my Seven. It's better with our Ford F-150 pickup, the standard family vehicle in this rural county. Our other option is a 6x12 (very common) single axle utility trailer. It tows either car comfortably with the mini-van and is hardly noticed by the truck. I mounted some plywood on the front to keep gravel off my Seven's snout. Both trailers have small winches mounted that run off the vehicle battery. Hope that gives you some ideas.

Thank you, JB.

Got it, and thanks. For the fun of it, I connected the two with a clear vinyl tube. Now I can see droplets of gasoline migrating to the left or to the right depending on which carb is pulling more. Hmmmm. I just invented a new way to equalize SU carbs....

And this Bud's for you, 11Budlite. Thank you. That must have been an emissions control solution. It would never fit in my Series 2, even with the little Austin A engine. I was thinking more of just routing the oily air into the carbs.

Thanks so much. I'll think about venting the crankcase and the rocker top into them to get rid of that oily air, but until then, they get caps.

See the two brass tubes coming out of my SU carbs at about 45 degrees near the throttle spindle? I can find nothing about them in all the guides to SU carbs that I have, and they don't appear in any of the pictures I've found. Left open, they suck air behind the venturi and everything goes lean. If I interconnect them with clear tubing I can see which carb is pulling harder. Any wisdom out there?

My guess is "not much." My reason is that the front of the scuttle attaches only to the sheet aluminum fire wall - there is not a frame member at the front. That's a lot of opportunity to flex between the frame member at the top of the instrument panel to the bottom of the fire wall.

Rivet nuts certainly will last longer than sheet metal screws. Allow me to recommend the steel ones - it's too easy to spin the aluminum ones with just a tiny bit too much torque on the wrench. I set my drill (not my 1/4 inch impact driver) on low torque and chase the threads with a tap if I run into resistance.

So, I'm not alone in having the scuttle riveted to the top edge of the firewall. She's back together, will hit the rod in a few days, and going to a friendly local car show in a week.

Going to IamScotticus

Wow! Thanks so much for responding and telling me about it. That's really odd. Mine is a flat "U" with the windscreen brackets bolted through. The front edge of the scuttle is turned down so it overlaps the firewall. No plate. The turned down front edge was riveted to the fire wall in a string of about twenty blind rivets. The after edge is rolled, and then was riveted to the round frame member that also supports the top edge of the instrument panel. Not as many rivets this time. There is no facility for easy removal of the scuttle. The stems for the wipers come up through the scuttle in front of the windscreen, but the motor and arm are anchored separately to the instrument panel. My S2 America was factory assembled and imported to the US in 1962. I have no reason to believe that the scuttle was ever removed after manufacture. The other oddity is that it's an "America" but has a right hand steering wheel. I can see how owners would have complained and asked for a way to remove the scuttle. You really cannot access the wiring from below. Well, I had the same problem they had, and solved it by substituting rivet nuts and screws for all those rivets. It works - I just put it back in place a few minutes ago. Apparently, I've got a somewhat odd S2.

I picked up two of these on eBay and only have a use for one. I seem to remember that someone was looking for one a few weeks ago. It's the type that clamps onto the edge of the windscreen bracket, and is identical left/right. I'd appreciate reimbursement for shipping, but if you need it, it's yours.

When it came time to reassemble my Seven, it occurred to me that it had been a long job of drilling out blind rivets to remove the panel between the firewall and the top of the instrument panel, and that it had been necessary in order to access the rat's nest of wiring behind the panel. No way I could see what was going on from the bottom. So, I substituted steel 8-32 rivet nuts for the aluminum blind rivets. Good move. I no sooner had her together than I started having problems with the 63 year-old wiring. The turn signals and that horrid Lucas $160 turn signal switch failed, the sidelights partially failed, the brake lights went dark -- everything started falling apart. The Dark Knight said get home before dark, and he meant it. So, off came the entire panel with the windscreen still attached, I ran new wire, and today the assembly does back on.

I'll go back and add a digit. Thanks for noticing that I forgot that. There. Since all the manufacturers that started with positive earth got on the same bandwagon with negative earth, I figure the negative earth wire harness smoke should have the higher number. LUCAS SMOKE NEG.pdf

It occurred to me that genuine Lucas wire harness smoke, which frequently causes me to evacuate my garage, is very expensive to replace and largely off the market, while we each have copious amounts of it but not in a container. That smoke must be returned or replaced in the wiring harness or we definitely will have to get home before dark. See https://www.mgexp.com/forum/mgb-and-gt-forum.1/electricity-is-smoke-electrical-theory-by.3765167/ for a short summary of Joseph Lucas’ theory that smoke is actually electricity. The obvious answer is that we recycle what we get naturally by owning a British car. But then, what do we put it in? The usual answer is a brown glass bottle. Most of us have a few empties sitting around, or can dig them out of the remains of our fire pit. Lucas smoke should always be stored in a light-resistant glass bottle, because no Lucas product can withstand exposure to strong light and the smoke would corrode any plastic container, no matter how inert. But then, your bubble-brained brother-in-law is sure to see a closed but unlabeled brown bottle and try to drink it. Yes, that would simplify your family. A few minutes with Adobe Illustrator resulted in a solution. Here are Lucas labels for positive and negative earth Lucas smoke. If you copy one into Word, you can resize it as needed. I hope that Sevens owners who have leaked and retrieved more than they need will offer replacement smoke to other forum members at a reasonable price. I reiterate the disclaimer that my family is in no way related to Joseph Lucas, a fact that may have prompted my grandmother to hyphenate our last name. LUCAS SMOKE NEG.pdf LUCAS SMOKE POS.pdf

With you, Speedwagon. I seem to have hit a nerve here - we've all had experiences with over-torqued lug nuts. Anyone got a link to a source of replacement studs? I was in my seventies before I understood the principle here - that you torque nuts (not just lugs) into their elastic range so that the bolt and nut form a spring clamp holding the two parts together. When you torque into the plastic range, you actually lose clamping pressure, and as Speedwagon says, you've got a time bomb on your hands. Some bolts (particularly aircraft) are torqued and then tightened 90 degrees, for maximum holding power, but they are one use only. Go over the 90 degrees and you have to start over with a new very expensive bolt.

With you, pethier. After years of waiting while little compressors did big jobs, I broke down and squeezed a real compressor into my over crowded shop. Damned good investment. It helps having a wife who restores Ford Model Ts. MV8: Thanks as usual. Tire Rack discourages using torque rods, I suppose because they are not exactly precise. I'll use a good torque wrench, but I don't do many tires. For a garage staffed by Florida Good Ol' Boys (Love 'em, but the headlines are a constant source of dismay), torque rods seem to me the most practical solution. Even if the boss just put an 85 ft lb rod on the air wrench, and all their vehicles got that, it would be better than everyone getting 200+ ft lbs.

Time to rant. I rotated the tires on my Miata yesterday. The generally very good local mechanics shop had mounted them when new. Not even my air wrench would loosen them. They were on so tightly that I sheared a socket adaptor when trying to loosen them with a breaker bar and extension. Someone simply does not understand torque/elastic range/plastic range when it comes to lug nuts. Fifty years ago a truck tire bouncing down the Interstate killed the wife of one of my colleagues. I wonder how many of those YouTube flying tire incidents are the product of lug nuts being over torqued.

Actually, that's a vent used to direct leaked engine oil and coolant onto the windscreen. It's very effective.

It's been about ten months since I took my 1962 Series 2 out of service for paint and refurbishment. Thank you to all the learned members of the forum who have kept me on track and stopped me doing really stupid stuff along the way. I appreciate your help. Now I'm getting used to driving her - at night for the first time early this morning.

Try: https://www.ebay.com/itm/115839540878?_skw=vintage+side+mirror+set&itmmeta=01K6D6Z3Y41N4359PRYCE6HHTD&hash=item1af8931e8e:g:TKQAAOSw0UdXs5zC&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA8FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1eGNP1A9OHmzsoOXM%2F7lUcC3YTAMzB9i8KtwZs%2B1yvqREjiy%2Bl9uS2A7nSaJK7N8aO3gZ34ChwceF4VkADfsIYhnZUoM8AhDpnFQxlN2mGcS3a%2B8x4YQSEDR9GgzUVAXRgdNGofuIxcqR1%2BrLiyndTfh8KhorTJq%2Fi9wDAVAcGVTqnZOAdigjE3kBJ7Kct2k42oNV0dEoN1zMJlmUuuOzyJCbohvfee45InMIY9ZMGMIe3tvdUYr%2F4bkJwwA4dcL3RtqnzzB8BHtka2dcFfElxdLcorlO56qILxrDBwg3QJZg%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR5y__KazZg or: https://www.ebay.com/itm/125243104860?_skw=vintage+side+mirror+set&itmmeta=01K6D6Z3Y46756K3B664HWB0DS&hash=item1d29121e5c:g:LJAAAOSwyPFcKs7c&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA8FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1eNcze4RQS11QazbkTNKlZLgCoDUQN5RDUfpNsoVID2mPUbRE8xwTTBt7Kf4layLZkuwD9kH%2BawcA4Dyjc3Qcqe6O7%2FdEtkbIR1yV7UkU0ZrJTJGsYqznOfsynZ17mUzRwhAWT64uF%2BFVkImCv5iMobBXcScMGLdlAuzqCRiTD0IWxQ%2FQNj19L8ivp4m8lNIHubAfToKgf0m1aYEDr5t7nuGOLFF4ZJ6nE7V2uB2i3oMVXCLLmY%2FueoKU9N6%2BH7zY%2F3B1GtmgLPDAEeij7yZQx6zcWhYew91yMCK0J6JbFYTA%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR5y__KazZg

Oh, Poot! It was so much fun being able to include "V liftoff" among the specs for a clamshell 7 at car shows.

I wonder just how many Lotus Sevens are registered in the United States?

Hmmm. I suffered an electrical fire shortly after purchasing my right-hand-drive series two, and her racing history predated battery cut-offs. Getting to the battery to disconnect it involved getting out of my harness and then four latches and a belt buckle. I also noticed that the fire extinguisher, under the dash on the left side, was hard to deploy. So, I designed my own lanyard that both disconnects the battery and drops the fire extinguisher onto the floor on the passenger (left) side. In the first photograph is the battery disconnect and the red paracord headed for the firewall. The cord has a loop that catches the extinguisher quick-release latch and then ends in the knot in the second photograph just in front of the passenger. The cord can be pulled by the driver without releasing his harness or by someone else on the left side of the car. I test it from time to time, and it works.

I have 1962 S2 SB1160. She had a distinguished racing history in the northeast US, sat in storage for many years, and came to me as the second owner. I've made her into a working road car with minor car show attributes. I'm a relative newcomer to the forum, so I can't speak to the number of original Sevens about, but there certainly exists on the forum a wealth of knowledge about the originals. Members have helped me out many times in the last few years with their wisdom.