Cleaning, checking and upgrading the 1700 Supersprint

[Anker]

This is a cross post from the Lotus7.club site.

 

Started for serious on updating, cleaning and checking the 1700 Supersprint.

Item 1 was putting it on jack stands and removing the wheels so I can get at suspension and brakes. Learned the hard way that you can't put jack stands on one side and then the other side. Has to be one end at a time. was careful, so I saw what was going to happen.

The whole suspension is going to need a good cleaning. Oily grime covers everything. Bearings and bushings seem to be in good shape. Cleaning, flushing brakes and checking pads and shes can wait.

Then I moved to the engine. I am going to reroute the crank case blow by using the routing through the valve cover and then a catch can. The Caterham catch can is a bit of junk, so I'll get a good one instead and use the hoses and PVC valve connector from the Caterham kit.

QUESTION: The original rubber PVC valve connector is a really lose fit, but doesn't want to come out of the valve. It is held by a disk that appears to be brazed on to the valve. Do I just use brute force to pull the old connector out? Seems to be the only option

The carb was a real chore to remove. Especially the nuts on the bottom of the carb that holds it on to the manifold. I was able to get a socket on them with a universal joint on the outer nuts and an extension on the inner nuts. The butterfly valve for cylinder 4 was quite a bit dirtier than the others. I suspect that's the one with a leaking valve seal. The spitting caused by the bad ignition timing must have blown oil on to the butterfly valve.

The last thing I did today was to trial fit the 8" cooling fan that I'll replace the original with, The shield will need a bit of trimming to get a good fit, but it will work a lot better than the original fan when fitted properly. No wonder the original fan is inefficient. There's no funnel to prevent sucking from the sides and there;s a huge hap between the fan and the radiator, so most of the ait sucked by the feeble fan must have come from around the radiator.

Must have taken over an hour to complete the job, but now I can get at the distributor. I am going to replace the original with one from Burton Power with an Ignitor.