Running again

I got the Lotus running last week, it ran for about 10 minutes and died suddenly. A couple of things went wrong.

The car ran out of fuel and air was sucked into the lines. I filled the tank with new fuel and ran a hose from the electronic pump into a canister. It took a few minutes to clear the air pockets.

Next, the car would not start. I checked the timing, wires and plugs and everything looked good. After several hours of frustration, I found the engine was not getting spark.

If you remember from an earlier post, the cap on the Pertronix 3 ignition had a problem. It took 3 months to order a new one, so I purchased and installed an Accuspark unit. I put the Pertronix 3 back into the car and it started right away.

After about an hour of fettling, balancing the carbs and adjusting the timing, the engine is running beautifully.

My plan is to drive the car for a few days and then tackle some of the smaller jobs.

New servo vacuum hose

The warm weather is finally here and I'm back at my +2 project. There are a lot of small projects on my list before I drive the car.

In the fall, I replaced the brake servo vacuum hose with silicone fuel line. Unfortunately, you could see it flex and pinch when you applied pressure to the pedal. So I needed to change to a hose with stronger walls.

A local hydraulic shop suggested using high pressure fuel injection line (rated for 800+ psi). I purchased a short length and installed it this afternoon. The brakes should feel "right" now.

I'll post another update on the brakes when I start the car next week.