Lotus Elan Central

I guess at some point the Cat would have to be out of the bag. and the BRG NA that was on facebook would appear here.

so. yes, its a nice car. being an NA it feels like it lacks power. but i still really like it.

its a 1992 with a J Reg, which in turn means i can transfer my vanity plate to it.
it has the short shift kit installed. which so far i am not impressed with, but the jury is still out on that. (i suspect its poorly adjusted or incorrectly installed)

obviously a car with a price tag that I am willing pay will never be a completed product. and this one certainly has its own flaws.

the paint is aged and the stone chips are scattered everywhere BUT its in perfectly usable condition without looking scruffy untill you get to do you close inspection.
the electrical systems seem to have been fiddled with in a manner that i am not happy about.
1 - previous owner said both light pods lift on the same fuse. (which i find alarming with regards of the condition of the lift module)
2 - the interior lights come on as soon as you turn the key, instead of when the sidelights are switched on.
3 - the radio is always on. which is not unheard of with Elans. but we already know that means i need to go back there and sort out that wiring.

another issue (which is already resolved by the time im posting) is the hard start problem.
after taking the car home and letting it sit for 2 days. i went to start it and it cranked forver before it eventually came alive. i will have a youtube video on the topic BUT the bottom line is the dizzy cap connections were corroded. and a little sandpaper fixed the issue temporarily untill the replacement cap arrived from rockauto

all the seals around the windows need replacing. some more desperatly than others.... thats another issue i will need to contact the LEC Seal wrangler to see if he wants to help me out with that.

the car has a thick folder with bills, particularly one from PMN got my attention because it totalled £1700 which is a topic i want to cover sometime later.




i will be using this space as the ongoing log of work done in this car and tracking everything and asking for help as required. which is basically the same as i do with my other project threads.

and for those more observant. yes, i have a blue elan project thread. I Still have that car. but i am just postponing work on that one for the time being as im hoping in the near future both yellow and green wont need much, i can get them out of the way and enjoy them before pickin up the work on the blue one.

Wow!. I think you must be the most dedicated person to the M100 cause Joao, some would call it a glutton for punishment . Wishing you all the best for the new project, a perfect donor for a K20 if ever there was one.

Now it is out in the open, I can say "well done" on keeping the car within the LEC community - my bid wasn't as high as yours, as Angie didn't want a green one! (even though it would have ended up yellow, she couldn't cope with a green car in the meantime). That said, if I'd got that one, I'd have not got the blue one, and I'm quite happy with it - so we both come out of it with a viable project which keeps more elans on the road.

My interest in that one was because it was a N/A..... I quite fancied having a crack at one, and was hoping that it was the "base" model without any of the options - I particularly wanted a car without PAS so I could see about fitting an electrically-assisted steering column (like on the Corsa etc) and play around with it..... but it wasn't to be.

As the car advert is no longer viewable on fleabay, I will just ask - does it have the 'optional' colour-coded door mirrors, or the 'standard spec for NA cars' black ones? (there is a reason why I ask - and it could be to your advantage )

Yep, I'm really looking forward to 'following' both of these - and learning a lot...

Jamie

I don't think this car needs anywhere near as much work as the other 2 when I first got them.

Dave

Wing mirrors are colour coded.
It does have pas. Which works a lot more efficiently than the other SE cars I got. I'm assuming the lighter nose due to the missing turbo weight has something to do with it.

I have so far replaced the distributor cap, spark plugs and leads.

I was intending to also replace the rotor arm. But the one that came from rockauto didn't fit snug. I ended up cleaning the one already there and putting it back

Looking forward to hearing about this one Joao.

Tuga2112 wrote:Wing mirrors are colour coded.
It does have pas. Which works a lot more efficiently than the other SE cars I got. I'm assuming the lighter nose due to the missing turbo weight has something to do with it.

Ah, right - a 'brand new' black door mirror was included when I got my blue one - it is the rough black plastic cover, not a smooth painted one, so is clearly for an NA..... but not yours!

I got a reply from the seller to say that the steering had PAS when the advert appeared - whilst not a deal-breaker for me, it was another slightly-negative point (for what I wanted, but a great feature for someone else!).

Looking forward to following along! The only time I've driven an NA is when my boost intake hose popped off The car felt "sporty" but not with the shove in the back that you mention.

Still, a very cool car, and it probably is the greatest daily driver, considering that much of the complicated turbo bits won't have to be messed with.

Same here, really excited for you Joao and glad you are expanding your knowledge and videos to this version of the car too. Time to update your signature with this project thread too now

Great stuff Joao!
Looking forward to see lots of pictures and progress updates on the project here

Latest news on this car is that i have a annoying trouble that im not sure how to diagnose.

at speeds higher than 40. when accelarating the whole front shakes left to right. the amount of shaking (or ferocity) seems to be related mostly to the speed of the car, and not necessarily to the amount of torque the engine is putting out to accelarate.

i have had a look and started by re-installing the wheels. and found one tire very low.
but after re-installing the wheels and filling up the tire its still shaking.
the hub nuts seem secure enough and both engine mounts that i can visually inspect from the top seem very well secure.

i am unable to take the car into the garage at the moment while the yellow car has no roof canvas. but any suggestions of what to look for (either right now, or as soon as i put it up on axle stands) are most welcome.

the engine itself is not operating at top performance. the fuel consumption is averaging at 30MPG which is higher than the other elan. im probably going to check its timing as soon as its in the garage, I am assuming there are no issues with ignition as the instalation of new plugs + leads + dizzy cap should have handled that. i will probably dump some redex on the fuel tank to hopefully clear out anything that may be causing trouble in the injectors.

i know for a fact that when cold. the system is running very rich... more rich than any other elan i've seen. so. looking for a vacuum leak is also something that just occured to me as im typing this....

Joao,

First thing is to swap the wheels over..... either front to back on the green car, or better still, using the ones off the yellow car.

It may be a simple matter of balancing wheels, or if it persists, then I'd be checking the central bearing bracket on the drivers-side drive shaft.

dapinky wrote:Joao,
..... then I'd be checking the central bearing bracket on the drivers-side drive shaft.

Wot Dave said.... It was drivers side drive shaft causing the shaking on mine last year. I had a 5mm gap where there shouldn't have been one and you could move the shaft a bit with your hand. Passenger side was rock solid with no gaps.

As well as what has been suggested, also check your cv joints. That was my problem when I had severe front vibrations.

And wheel bearings too!

Fredjohn wrote:And wheel bearings too!

i did check those when i re-installed the wheels. but the cv joints are soemthing i will look into after trying Dave's suggestion.

I saw a video posted on one of the facebook M100 groups last week from a guy in the US who had a front end vibration at certain Harmonic revs. He reckoned he had narrowed it down to the 'jack shaft' bearing. It's the inner bearing on the driveshaft?

dapinky wrote:Joao,

First thing is to swap the wheels over..... either front to back on the green car, or better still, using the ones off the yellow car.

It may be a simple matter of balancing wheels,

swapped front to rear wheels and shaking is still there.

dapinky wrote:or if it persists, then I'd be checking the central bearing bracket on the drivers-side drive shaft.

i will be checking this one asap. (depending on my luck, that may be tonight)

I found something wrong...
Not sure it's enough to explain the shaking but I'm certainly happy to address this now than later



EDIT

got a little bit worse than initially looked like

Aw scary...but well spotted Tuga. Is there a disc-retaining screw?

I ask because if that screw was holding it the disc + hub more together it might've been a lot more difficult to identify by wiggling...

chrism wrote:Aw scary...but well spotted Tuga. Is there a disc-retaining screw?

I ask because if that screw was holding it the disc + hub more together it might've been a lot more difficult to identify by wiggling...

yes, both disks have retaining screws. one side was posidrive and other was a flathead screwdriver type.

both replaced with stainless steel allen key bolts (same as used in the yellow car)

ive now replaced the slidding pins and bolts that hold the calipers and no more shaking.

it appears the old sliding pins were out of tolerance and allowed the caliper to wiggle around them... interestingly enough, i suspect this caliper was actually sold to the previous owner as used and it was enough to pass the MOT just a couple of months ago.




tomorow ill have to give it another go to see if the shaking is resolved

i also noticed my distributor is adjusted completely as far down as possble. i suspect it was initially adjusted and overtime slipped and i can only guess the sluggish accelaration and poor fuel consumption to be related to the timing being off. but thats something to check tomorow