XIL - A Rolling Project

[Monty]

Good work

[cliff]

Found this when I was checking the brakes ready for the MoT, looks like more project creep on the way:

RH lower wishbone:

LH upper:

Everything came apart quite easily except for the brake pipes and the caliper bolts - they were really tight. Undoing the top link gave a lot more room to use the breaker bar.

I thought that the rear brakes were ok, the handbrake worked properly as well. Shows how wrong you can be, one of the LH sliders had no rubber fitted!

Apart from the initial hole I saw in the LH lower wishbone, they didn't look too bad until I had a poke with a screw driver.

The LH one is the worst but oddly enough, the RH has started to fail in almost the same place.

I have some galvanised S2 wishbones to fit, thanks to Luca. There has been some discussion on the forum about these, comparing both sets, I can't see or measure any difference between them.

[cliff]

Stripped out

There must have been a pretty bad oil leak at sometime in the car's history, the chassis is covered in oil.

After a bit of cleaning.

This is surface rust where the paint surface has started to deteriorate, happy that I am doing this now and not in a few years. More cleaning & POR 15 should keep it good for the next few years.

[cliff]

Due to work & waiting for parts, things are a little slow.

Took these apart, the caliper brackets were a real pain. Then all the pieces & the rear anti roll bar went to a local place for Reinigungsstrahlen (sand & bead blasting).

Came back like this.

I bought a pair of Dorman calipers on US ebay for $50, there are many threads about these calipers mainly due to the lack of return stop on one side. I have spent a lot of time reading and seen various solutions, change the internals to the old casting, weld a new return stop or replace them for the beautiful new handbrake levers fabricated by Algirdas (sadly not available).

If I understand correctly, this is the problem.

New Dorman. The return stop is part of the handbrake lever, contacting just below the securing screw. The spring fits on the other part of the lever to the left.

Fitted with the Elan handbrake lever. No return stop, just the spring attachment.

Seems to me that the stop could be fitted in a different way.

Bent to shape and adjustable for gap, needs finishing though.

Trial fit.

I think I need a slightly longer screw, although there are plenty of screw threads in safety. Would appreciate any comments about this

[cliff]

Hubs rebuilt.

Rear chassis painted with POR 15. I am not really happy with the finish so some of it will be redone when I can get the car up on ramps.

For some reason, my car was fitted with the 3/15 proportioning valve but no limiting valve. Luckily I had bought a pair of 2/15 valves, so they have been fitted with new pipes & Goodrich hoses.

The rear chassis earth can be seen in the top right of the first picture, amazingly this had been bolted onto a painted surface so only the bolt threads would have been providing the earth. Now cleaned and fitted correctly. It will be sealed later.

This clearly shows the difference between the standard & Goodrich hoses. The standard fittings are much longer hence the need to lengthen the brake pipe.

Finally things are starting to go back together.

[cliff]

More progress.

According to the manual, there should be a 9.5mm spacer between the top link & the hub when fitting the S2 wishbones. Reading some previous threads, some people have fitted it, others not. The right hand side didn't seem to need it but the left hand side looks like it does. more reading on this I think.

Bob B's Hubs, a work of art!

Mintex Disc (MDC266)

I measured the old discs to see if they were salvageable, minimum limit is 10.9mm, both sides were 9mm! The car's history shows that they have been reground and the fact that they are both the same size bears that out. Scary that some garage is willing to take a disc below the minimum though. More scrap to get rid of.

Dorman caliper & Lotus pads

I was hoping to get this finished today but GAZ had different ideas. The dampers I ordered should have been ready for collection on Thursday, but they weren't ready. GAZ then told me they would be shipped Friday. Checked the tracking number today, guess what? Still in the UK Spoke to some airhead woman, she trotted out the usual bank holiday excuse, then didn't think it was possible to get overnight delivery to Germany and what was she supposed to do about it!

FFS! What planet are these clowns on? This bank holiday only affected UK and overnight delivery happens all over the world all the time (keeps companies like the one I work for going!) I think GAZ need to take a long hard look at their couriers. Had I been told, I could have arranged for collection on Friday and guaranteed delivery on Tuesday for less than these idiots charged!

So basically instead of taking my car to Liege tomorrow, I have no dampers and it will sit in the garage for another 3 weeks due to work & family commitments. Not impressed!

Had this been a part for the Alfa, I would have told them exactly where to stick it and gone elsewhere. Sadly as parts become rarer for the Elan and stuff like this is made to order, we don't have that freedom.

[Brit-Car-Nut]

According to the manual, there should be a 9.5mm spacer between the top link & the hub when fitting the S2 wishbones. Reading some previous threads, some people have fitted it, others not. The right hand side didn't seem to need it but the left hand side looks like it does. more reading on this I think.

If you are using a 2 1/2deg chassis, then the spacer is needed. If it doesn't look like it is needed, something is bent. If you have a 5deg chassis, spacers are not needed.

[cliff]

If you are using a 2 1/2deg chassis, then the spacer is needed. If it doesn't look like it is needed, something is bent. If you have a 5deg chassis, spacers are not needed.

My mistake, I have a 5 deg chassis so no spacer needed. There has been a some discussion about this though, maybe I have read too much. Nothing is torqued yet and the suspension is supported by buckets. I will have a better look when the car is on the ground.

BCN, thanks for your input. All assistance gratefully received.

[Rice crispy]

Looks really good great work

[madbilly]

Were the GAZ dampers you ordered the ones that saska has been trying out here?

[cliff]

Sadly not, I posted on that thread in July asking if there were any updates but had no reply.

My old ones were not worth fitting so I ordered the GP5-2133 shown in the catalogue together with springs from SJ´s.

[cliff]

Progress remains slow.

Finally received the new shocks from GAZ. Sadly they had been packed like this.

In the none too gentle hands of the shipping company, arrived like this.

GAZ were very apologetic and the shocks were returned, the spring seats replaced and the shocks inspected & tested. Many thanks to Mark for sorting this out promptly.

Shocks received (again), damper top plates cleaned & painted, new springs from SJ's.

.

Inner wheel arches were sprayed with Tetrasyl Stone Chip - easy to use & leaves a nice finish. In hindsight I should have done this before I put the suspension together but only read about it last week on one of the Scimitar forums. Shocks & springs fitted.

Hopefully brakes tomorrow & off stands for the first time in months.

[hatters]

You are making a cracking job of that Cliff WELLDONE .It looks ace

[cliff]

The bleeding didn't go quite so well, used a vacuum bleeder on the rears but when I tried to do the fronts.

Sheared the bleed nipple, its stuck solid. Mole grips & easi-outs making no impression so far. Looks like it's upgrade time.

I have a pair of old vectra calipers in the garage and rather than buy a seal kit would rather just swap them for these.

http://www.carbrakecalipers.co.uk/produ ... el-Product

Thats another few weeks gone, soon be winter. Having done less than 100 miles this year, I think I might have to change the title of the thread. How about, A rarely rolling project

[tigerdog]

Bummer about the bleed nipple! Hard to imagine it's stuck so tightly an easy-out won't budge it. I'd think you could still drill it out (undersize) and re-tap the hole but maybe not. Calling Dr. Bob Brown for a consult?

[cliff]

Thanks Tigerdog but snapped the easi-out off in the nipple today. I was trying to be gentle, honest, will borrow a couple of cobalt drills from work this week just to get it out.

I took the disk off as well as it has seen better days, after drilling out the small screw, the disk still wouldn't move. Luckily I had read a write up by ESM about fitting Wilwood brakes. He mentions using the caliper bolts to force the disk off, a great idea, thanks Alan. As the bolts only touch the very inside of the disk, the braking surface is not damaged as it would have been by my original plan of beating the daylights out of it. Ultimately not quite as satisfying though.

So Vectra/Saab, Wilwood or Hi-Spec?

[tigerdog]

I have Wilwoods from the original Brian F1Lotus run and really love the way they feel. Since this kit was produced, Bob Brown has made significant strides in newer retrofits. If I had it to do over, I would go with Wilwoods again because they a) work and b) are a pretty good value here in the US. With import duties, they may not be as much of a value. The best bet would be to attend an M100 gathering and see if you can try a few different conversions.

[norman lovie]

A wee trick to corroded brake nipples
they tend to sieze up only on the first few threads so if you can drill down only the first maybe 1.5mm - you,ll find the easy out works better - use a drill size that matches the equivelant thread insert size - so if you do take off too much of the original thread then you can always fit the insert to recover
will be a bugger to release the sheared ezout - good luck - if your lucky - a sharp punch and try and shift the ez out clockwise to release it's bite - or try and shatter it with the punch then pluck out the bits

[cliff]

So, time to start on the front.

Dirty, some corrosion, disks, springs & shocks pretty worn. Looks like the wheel has been rubbing on the liner.

Surface corrosion on the chassis member

All soaked in penetration fluid. Easiest track rod end I have ever removed!

Because of the RH brake nipple issue, I have no brakes, so the hubs will be staying in place as I cannot remove the nut without serious violence. The wishbones & TCA's should come off OK though.

[cliff]

Some more cleaning.

Raft removed & more cleaning. Upper bushes in good condition.

The lower TCA is not in the best condition, I can't say that I am happy to find such a large repair patch - that is a lot of the TCA to be welded. It seems to be an odd place for corrosion.

The lower part is corroded & holed.

The upper wishbones are in good condition but the bushes have seen better days. The upper ball joint bolts are siezed though - seems to be a common theme. Bought some on the aftersales for £15 each.

I managed to pick up a LH suspension on ebay for a really good price, all the bushes were good and after blasting & painting has come up really well.

Need to remove the brush hairs though.