Girling Mk2a brake servo notes

Ordered a brake servo rebuild kit from the UK. This image will come in handy:

Lotus 3.55 differential

It's been a cold & miserable winter in Canada. Not much progress to report.

I purchased a Lotus 3.55 differential for the car this week. It should be a better match for the 4-speed gearbox.

Making plans for the spring

Starter motor

• Hi-perf gear-reduction starter (sourced from RD Enterprises).

Electronic ignition

• Pertronix Ignitor / Flamethrower III (ordered from Amazon).

Body

• Stainless steel sill members (on order from SJS in the UK)

Muffler

• A 6" 316 S/S silencer (SJS)

Front/rear suspension

• TTR fronts & Koni rears (Tony Thompson Racing)
• New rear 'a' frames (on order from SJS)
• New rubber bushings (front/rear suspension and anti-roll bar)

Wheels

• Sandblast and repaint / powder coat rims (calling around for quotes)
• New tires (Bridgestone Potenzas or Toyo)

Re-jet carbs

• Balance and re-jet carbs (for 1615cc)

Misc

• New black/silver Lotus emblem
• Breather / oil catch can
• 25 amp fuse for fan
• Radiator fluid catch can

Sounds of the Lotus Twin Cam

After a lot of frustration and trouble-shooting, Harv Van Holst found the Pertronix electronic ignition was faulty. He re-installed the original distributor & coil and got the car running. 

Here's a short video from this morning:

Short lived celebration

After running for 5 minutes, the Lotus refused to start again. It became a guessing game: battery, electrical fault, timing, fuel lines, bad carburetor or the electronic ignition. Everything looked good, but the car continued to tease us.

Starting the engine part 3

I received a parcel from Burton Power: new air rams, fiber gaskets and rubber o-rings for the carburetors.

Bob and Barry ran through the items Pertronix asked us to check. The voltage on the positive terminal of the coil was < 9V when the engine was turning over. The only solution was to replace the new battery with another one.

On the first turn of the key, the engine spluttered and then erupted into a healthy note. The car was finally running!

Starting the engine part 2

After several attempts, the engine would not fire. Barry started checking the plugs and found there was no spark. This was odd because the electrical system seemed to be in top form and we had a new Petronix electronic ignition system installed.

Bob dropped in and checked the ignition coil, wires and electronic distributor. He found the electronic ignition module was not delivering a pulse to the coil.

I called Pertronix technical support and they made two suggestions: the engine not grounded properly (fresh engine paint?), or the ignition module was not receiving enough voltage (9V+ required).