I started the weekend with some serious sworking on the Lotus. I think I will
have the engine and rear suspension back in the frame this week. Then a bit of
brake line work and I can prep the chassis for the body to be lifted back on.
And a complete wiring job. And building a dashboard underlayment for the Koa.
And reinstalling the manifolds. And designing and building an exhaust system.
And putting in the steering column and control cables. And more!
The big job was getting the coolant tubes in. Naturally, I scraped them up a
bit getting them in. Wish I could have had stainless replacements made. The
grommets were hard to work with. I probably should have tried to find original
parts, as these fit a bit too tight. The ones in the front eventually went in
OK, but I just couldn't get the angles to work on the back ones, so they are
kind of chewed up. Sigh.
The gearchange design seems to work, so far. The fork / block / ball-bearing
setup I designed and built is so much more positive than the original
tang-and-clevis it is astounding. I assembled the front half of the linkage
and tried it out. The spherical bushing I used for the lever/frame connection
was way too stiff. I messed about with it in place for a while, but it just
showed no signs of improvement. This was unacceptable, as I would have no feel
at all. So I took it all back out and put the bushing in the vice, holding on
one ear of the aluminum-alloy base. I then got a bolt and stuck it through the
bronze ball and secured it with a nut. Then I chucked the bolt in my power
drill. I ran the ball up to full power whilst smearing it with rubbing
compound and swinging the drill motor around through the range of movement.
After a while, I found that I could move the motor around smoothly while it
was turned off. I took out the bolt and tested the ball for motion with my
fingers. Seemed OK. Took it out and washed it in running kerosene (paraffin
for our friends across the pond) whilst rotating the ball every which way to
get the abrasive out. After reassembly, I tested it again and found the front
system to be virtually frictionless and without lost motion. Neat. It is great
to rediscover the old ways of "running in" parts that are largely forgotten in
these days of parts being made to fine tolerances by machines.
Now I have to wait for engine / gearbox / rear suspension installation to put
in the rear half of the gearchange and see how that works. I will be replacing
the dumb bushing setup on the top of the gearbox with a heim (rose for OFATP)
joint. I looked at several ways to do this, but am unable to improve upon
Steve Valin's solution. Steve replaced the stamped tab that holds the dumb
rubber bushing with a piece of steel bent to present a horizontal surface to
the left. There is a vertical bolt and nut through this which goes through the
heim joint. This should complete a low-friction, no-play, no-rubber linkage
that will beat the bad rep Europas have for shift linkages. I won't be able to
do anything about the famous Renault gearbox, unless you all think Redline
gearbox oil will help.
The mosquito crop in my garage is becoming really annoying. I hope the
East Coast's heat wave moves out so we can get some better weather here.
Yesterday, July 18th, I got to drive yet another autocross in the car park
of a dormant horse track in here in Minnesota. Bill Kempe let me drive his his
'86 (second-gen, IRS) RX-7. I petitioned the assembled multitude to allow me
to compete in A Prepared. This is my statement of faith that the Lotus will
hit the trail this season.
I lost to the car owner by only six thousandths! I would have had third place
in a competitive C Stock, beating the MR-2 guys. Instead, I will have to be
content with my third place in AP. Even that is not too bad. Glenn Ciegler's
Europa was first, Brian Martens' Dutton 7 was about a second back and I was
about a second back from Brian. Tempting to think I could have been 2 seconds
faster in my own Lotus. This is definitely incentive to stay at the wrenching.
Phil Ethier, THE RIGHT LINE, 672 Orleans Street, Saint Paul, MN 55107-2676
h (612) 224-3105 w (612) 298-5324 phile@pwcs.stpaul.gov
"The workingman's GT-40" - Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman
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