S2 #378 (Steve) - hopefully only light fixes

[Saltire]

I’ve got plans to rebuild the suspension in the winter!

Been there, done that two years ago

Shout if you need help with parts / alternatives etc.

[378S2]

Hi Jonathan - love the help please! I thought I’d disassemble it all before I order any parts, but I fully expect to change all the bushes and would probably do the shocks and springs if the wisdom of the crowd is that the modern replacements are as good as the OEM. My car has done ~180k km so they will be tired.

Would love to know the answers to all the newbie questions

- which shocks are ‘best’?
- which springs?
- poly bushes all round or rubber where available?
- best place to buy it all?

My car is remarkably rust free but I will get it all blasted and recoated while it’s all apart.

The job looks ok, having watched the videos. Anything to watch out for?

[Saltire]

OK, so loads to talk about. Let me start by saying that I wanted to maintain originality wherever possible, so my choices were to some extent governed by that. In no particular order:

- I decided to stay with standard springs, for the reasons above (replacements available from SJ Sportscars). Others on the forum have gone for updated springs, but I stayed with standard

- Original dampers are no longer available. I considered replacements from Nitron, Gaz, and Avo. Eventually, I went for Avo, to a large extent for cost reasons, but also because their customer service is good, and they will rebuild the dampers for you should it be necessary in a few years. They came from Merlin Motorsport.

- I wouldn’t go with all poly bushes. In particular, the raft is meant to have rubber bushes to give it the right degree of compliance (I’m sure Simon…P will be along in a minute to explain much more fluently than I can ) Fortunately, SJ stock the raft bushes. Some of the other bushes are unavailable, so I had to use poly, which came from either SJ or Kelvedon Lotus. To sum up, rubber where available, otherwise poly, and don’t use poly on the raft was my choice, but YMMV

- Just to finish off the story, I did the brakes at the same time. Full refurb on original calipers, smaller bore master cylinder, fresh fluid, and Mintex discs and pads front and rear (these came from eBay UK). It was a b****r to bleed, but I’ve had really good brakes since I got the pedal to firm up,

Hope that helps as a start, but please feel free to ask as you go!

[378S2]

That’s outstanding thanks Jonathan, gives me everything I need. I’ve already done the brakes, and I have the smaller bore master cylinder in my box of parts just waiting for me to put it in. I don’t mind the OEM brakes I have to say. I boiled mine on a long down hill a few weeks back but otherwise they’ve always stopped me when required.

Did your suspension feel better once done? I’m a little worried I’ll spend all the time and money and won’t notice a lot.

[dapinky]

George,

I fully agree with everything that Jonathan says (probably because he followed my advice/guidance when he did his ).

I went for AVOs because I got offered a 'used' set which came with 'new' S2 springs (standard, not uprated) - although they were a few years old, they had covered minimal mileage and the guy I bought them from was upgrading to Nitrons, which are undoubtedly the 'best' but at a huge price. I had all 4 shocks rebuilt before fitting them (just so I had a known starting point) which took less than a week from postage to receipt of them back again. I had previously had them on other cars and can't rate them highly enough.

I found that the 'lowest' damping setting is very very close to OE, but went up 1 click to firm it up just a little bit. I find it fine for everyday use, but if tracking the car, I'd probably play with the settings depending on rain or other factors.

I managed to get a complete set of rubber raft bushes (I think that they are mainly still available, but can't be sure). I gut the wishbone (upper and lower) in Poly, and they are listed by both SJs and SWL.

I also set all the angles to factory settings, so it is impossible to say what each 'adjustment' did to the car individually, but overall it transformed the whole experience.

Lowering the car wasn't on my list of things to do, but there is enough thread left on each shock to do it if required.

[378S2]

My steering rack has a small leak, it seeps from the right hand side gaiter and makes the suspension / raft bushes moist with oil. I don’t much fancy the job of removing the rack from the car.

Has anyone had any luck with stop leak products? Could they do any damage?

[378S2]

Beautiful day here…

[378S2]

Steve was first registered 27 years ago today, to a GP in the Sydney suburb of Pymble. Around the same time I was a British backpacker in Sydney sleeping on an air bed in my friend’s uncle’s spare room. At that point I was already an avid Elan fan (I wanted a yellow one). It was very far beyond my reach back then. 27 years on I like to think I’ve had a relatively interesting career so far, but - at $300k AUD - the new Emira is just as far beyond my reach as the Elan was!

To celebrate, I changed the oil and filter (this time making a right bloody mess) and finally got round to pressure testing the cooling system. A couple of weeping joints but otherwise 100%. I also spotted oil coming from the oil filler and running down towards the turbo which must have been the cause of my ‘hot engine’ smell. That was an easy fix.

[378S2]

Steve's 27th birthday celebrations continue.

There was some grease on the rear wheels and after a little bit of investigation turned in to removing the hubs I found that I had overtightened them when I put them on. I needed the bearing pullers to get the inner races off. So I am feeling quite lucky all I need are new bearings and that the stub axel is ok.

If you want to get Steve a present, he'd like to know the generic part numbers of the bearings, oil seal and funny little helmet thing and also the recommended brand please!

[Fredjohn]

Have you read WikiLEC?

http://wikilec.com/view/Wheel_bearings

[378S2]

Thanks FredJohn - yes it was very helpful. We have a different set of cars here but I’ve got the bearings and oil seal sorted. I can’t seem to find the bearing dust cap though.

Now, I had promised myself that I wasn’t going to take off the brake hangers because a) I don’t need to and b) if I snap one of those bolts I’m in a world of hurt. However…

Curiosity got the better of me and once I’d cracked the first one the rest had to follow suit. Only the smallest amount of surface corrosion to report, actually no hassle at all. If you do this yourself make sure the tools are good, long breaker and knock the hex socket in firmly with a hammer.

Taking these off just to put them right back on was a total waste of time. We’re locked up with COVID though so it’s this or Netflix.

Another job I have been putting off but time to service the proportioning valves. My rear brakes are in great shape still from the rebuild last year.

Matt - it’s taken me almost a year to get round to overhauling my pressure valves but now I’m on it and very grateful to you for posting the O-Rings.

Does anybody grease the spring before putting it back?

Easy enough to put back together if you have the right o-rings

I’ve read a few posts about the brakes being hard to bleed. I’ve had no trouble since adopting this approach. The syringe is just because I’m too tight to buy a proper vac bleeding set up. The PTFE tape wrapped around the thread of the bleed nipple is an approach I saw on a Hagarty video and it’s made all the difference.

PTFE tape stops air getting sucked through the thread so you know when all the air is out.

[378S2]

I recently bought a very reasonably priced set of replacement leather gaiters for the handbrake and gear lever, £25 on eBay.

The bushes in my gear lever are clearly worn, do any of you kind folk know where to get replacements? I have not seen them on SJS. https://youtu.be/KpgYcIwJIR8

These are quite worn out, and replacements were not expensive.

This is spanked, but I couldn’t easily find a replacement so I patched it

Some similar thickness rubber and contact adhesive seemed to do the job.

It’s not too pretty, but it’ll be an improvement while I find a replacement.

The manufacturer said it was for both S1 and S2, but I think it was a better fit for an S1. So I removed the wire and clipped it in without too much trouble. I also had to release some stitching for the handle to get through.

I’m pretty happy with that

…and that.

[M100-NC]

Steve,

What do you mean by "The bushes in my gear lever are clearly worn"

The large white area is more like a ball socket than a bush.

Your's appears to be a bit sloppy but the shifter ball also appears to be rusted.

There are no replaceable bushes per-se in the shifter.

The only bushes listed in the parts book are the outer 4 bushes where the bolts hold it down to the tunnel.

The actual shifter part # 10 is available from your local Lotus Dealer for £138.78 + taxes and shipping.

You should also consider looking closely at the gearbox end control box where the cables attach to the shift levers.

There are bushes in both ends of the cables and they might be worn too. None of those are available as separate parts.

Since you have an S2, I have to assume your shifter cables are the correct cables for the S2 since the SE had more breakable
plastic bits and no replacement bushes where the cables connected at both ends.

I got away from the low quality OEM shift cables and started making my own cables when I bought a set of AB cables which are pretty much what Lotus copied to design the S2 cables.
Those cables are really close to throttle and choke cables instead of heavy duty push pull cables, so there is slop built in from the beginning.

I will look in my spares shelf to see if I have an extra shifter # 10 but you should be able to find one at a local breaker yard.
There are a lot more M100s in breaker yards in the UK than the US.

The bushings for the shifter frame (#18 & 19) old the shifter frame assembly but don't really affect the center shift freeplay.

I would love to suggest that you purchase one of my heavy duty shift cable kits WITH the short-shift adapter included, but I think you need to look at the actual shifter and how it pivots.

JC

[MPx]

Very helpful post John, but TBA Steve is in Australia not the UK.

[M100-NC]

Very helpful post John, but TBA Steve is in Australia not the UK.

Thanks Mike. I didn't see that minor detail.

I shipped a cables kit to Australia last month on April 29th. I think that is the only kit to go down under.

I imagine Steve will probably have a hard time finding many M100s in breaker yards in Australia.

I still think Steve should check the cables and cable bushings at the gearbox AND the shifter to rule out a bushing failure.

Removing the shifter assembly isn't outrageously difficult, but it requires removing the center console which is a bit tedious and then he should pull the shifter AND the cables out to verify they are still in good shape before he starts looking for a replacement shifter.

Since he is possibly going to continue using the cables he already has, he might consider tying a cable of some sort to the cables before he pulls them out ot the tunnel which would make it easier to put things back together when he diagnoses the actual cause of his issue.

Unfortunately, the "gearshift control assembly" has been obsolete since Oct 21, 2009 so finding a new one might be difficult.

This is the part that is worn out.

Shifter-2.jpg (8.85 KiB) Viewed 5546 times

I can check with a couple of long time lotus dealers over here to see if any are sitting on their shelves collecting dust.

Steve, you need to take it apart enough to identify exactly what has worn down. Like I said, the internal ball socket in the shifter was never servicable, but the actual shifter part WAS available until a few years ago and might be available from a long time Lotus dealer.

I see that SJSportscars still lists the shifter as available but that will need to be confirmed.

I will check my normal suppliers over here and we might get lucky.

[378S2]

Hi John, thanks for the advice and drawings.

I have one of your SSKs installed, I bought it last year sometime (I’m George, the car is Steve so that’ll be throwing you off!). You also found me an oil pressure sender but I have not been able to change that yet, I think I’ll need to pull the intake plenum off to get to it.

The diagram is very helpful - when I was patching the gaiter I noticed a circlip holding the ball joint together and assumed they’d be new poly bushes available. Agree that I seem to need a new assembly.

Quality drive today with Lotus WA, the car went beautifully and I spent most of the drive following an Elan +2 with a leaky fuel filler cap that gave me a shower every time we turned right.

[TorqueHorse]

Sorry I missed the shout out George from when you did those o-rings a while ago! Glad they worked out for you; and from your recent photos it looks like you've been able to stop ok (would hate to rear end an Elan +2 or an Exige, not to mention Steve).
I'll have to try the tip of using teflon tape, next time too!

Beautiful photos; looks like a lovely fall run!

[378S2]

My recently rebuilt driver’s side proportioning valve has started weeping fluid from the usual spot. This valve had been rebuilt before by the previous owner and was fine. I only rebuilt it again because I was doing the passenger’s side preemptively and it made sense to me for both sides to be done with the same o-rings.

I’ll whip it off and try some subtle changes in o-ring size.

I’ve of course read and thought about all the warnings on not opening these up. However they are not complicated, the failure mode is gradual not catastrophic, and they’re not difficult to reassemble so I am comfortable to disregard that (please do not read that out at my wake if I have grossly over estimated my abilities!).

Now my question for the collective is this. Who’s swapped for the SJ part? If the perfect sized o-rings just aren’t known to us, as appears to be the case, is an expensive swap a better bet than a near-free rebuild?

At $350 plus delivery it’s not a cheap option, but is it my best choice? https://www.sjsportscars.com/parts-and-accessories/SJ100J0018.htm

or

Should I go for the Willwood option? They are less than half the price but I’m not clear how I would set them to the correct level or get both rears equally set.

Much cheaper, but how do you dial them in correctly?

[TorqueHorse]

I finally just got my "rebuilt" ones on the car and I also see a drop of fluid that might be coming from that joint, so I might not be far behind you George. I would think since they are supposed to be the same proportions that "dialing in" would be the same number of turns on each unit, but...?
Eager to hear what others have too

[dapinky]

Might be worth a read if you have plenty of time, and a high tolerance to waffle!!!!

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