naddy

New nut from Redline, I hadn’t looked closely at it when I posted last night, nor did I realise my car didn’t already use them!

Excellent, thanks. I'm surmising that: Possibly, early widetrack was fitted at a time when there was a shorter threaded portion on the bottom of the upright and so the cut down nut was needed so that the nylon bit would engage, unless the spacer was omitted above the bearing in which case there would be plenty of thread anyway my car has an upright with a longer threaded portion (based on #4) so engaging the nylon bit wouldn't be such a problem but the cut down nut has the benefit of fitting inside the bearing; The smooth portion of the upright that locates in the bearing is about 18mm long and the bearing is about 19mm long so if you fit a 8mm spacer above the bearing then the 4mm long turned-down bit of the special nut can locate in the bearing and occupy some of the 'gap' created by the upper spacer (would this matter?). some time post-2000 (based on #3) the turned-down nut got replaced by a top hat which located in the bottom of the bearing and a normal (but shallow) nut was used because I guess the top hat was easier/cheaper to make than a fancy nylock? moving the nut down is a very good thing!! (based on #5) because it might unfasten . The special nut is the same size across flats as the std one but I've only just noticed has an extra 2mm portion that wouldn't engage in the bearing and would keep the hexagons lower. cunning. Can I just check: Paul, you fitted a spacer below the bearing (essentially in lieu of the later-supplied top hat)? and do you have the upper spacer fitted? 7WOTW, are you referring to the upper spacer? is it the case the the upright might foul the upper side of the wishbone? Maybe I'm missing something but I'm not understanding why the upper spacer was mandated in the first place? clearance issues or geometry? If it becomes a question of geometry then I'll get confused! but if Gary advocated getting rid then I'd be swayed by that

I’ve stripped down my front suspension for some cosmetic tidying and discovered that I have no spacer between the lower wishbone spherical joint and the bottom of the upright on either side of the car. I also have a regular lock nut that doesn’t appear to be the ‘turned down’ version. The build manual says widetrack should have the spacer and the special nylock. searching BC on this topic and the prevailing opinion seems to be aligned with the build manual but a couple of references to running without the spacer, and one refers to having a larger spacer... https://www.lotus7.club/forum/techtalk/widetrack-8mm-upright-spacer suggests that Gary May advised leaving it off https://www.lotus7.club/forum/techtalk/what-upright-nut-used #5 suggests the arrangement that I have and this one refers to Gary May advocating a 10mm spacer! https://www.lotus7.club/forum/techtalk/front-suspension-question-0 has anyone an opinion on this? I’m inclined to put it back as I’ve found it but I’d like to be making a more informed choice. It’s apparently been ‘wrong’ for some time on my car but I have not had a problems. Car is year 2000 superlight, widetrack.

Apologies, I've been a bit busy to respond or post here! nothing covert As Malcolm is aware, I had a couple of days booked this year but both days are full already. Those who have emailed I will reply to and I'll keep you in mind if anybody drops out Nick

Well, that's spooky. I've not done anything to the car in a while or been here for even longer! This morning I took the boot floor out, with ease! Still in one piece with a bit cut out to fit around the fuel filler. Never got around to bisecting mine and it looks like I've got the knack. Weirdly, this thread came to mind while I was doing it earlier and now I found it on the first page of TT..... Anyhow, useful to hear Tom that it's not structural as previously rumoured! Is the front section still wood with a thin sheet of ally on new cars or has that changed?

Thanks Andrew, you have mail. Nick

ideally a set of 2x6-inch and 2x8-inch 8 spoke wheels that are straight but cosmetic condition not that important as I might get them refurbished. Would also consider pairs or even maybe single wheels. Tyres not needed.

Tom, it's me! nick, thanks for your mails offline and this thread. I'm still interested but just had a busy few days! In my defence, we have a local whatsapp group and I'd enquired there first. Tom mustn't have spotted it :-p anyhow if you can help tom that would be great. Destination is Greater Manchester, but Cheshire or anywhere fairly north... I'm happy to meet the gonader (is that the correct term?). Or a LADS or other area meet.

Tom, I think he's tinkering Stu, I think I have some silicone caps that I put on the cam cover vents when I did mine. I didn't think there were three though? I'll check in the garage at some point...

or in other words, it was fine until you changed the dampers

I think stub and hose is common. Some might have a small catch tank at the end of the hose? but IME hose alone is sufficient. Having no hose probably will result in a little loss of oil.

Excuse my ignorance, but am I the only one wondering what a practice bomb is? I'm fairly sure it can't be what I initially thought!

They do crack around the welds, I had one tank welded on three occasions IIRC. My non-expert opinion is that the tank is made from very thin material that will readily fracture next to a rather chunky & relatively rigid area of weld. Now that might be nonsense and it may be the case that the welder didn't know what he was doing... But for the record, after the tank had been in and out repeatedly and then leaked again from the same place I went down the chemical metal route in sheer frustration, applied with the tank in-situ. The chemical metal patch was a mess and a big dribble ran down the side of the tank - nothing to be proud of but it didn't leak and I could get on with driving the car. Kept it that way for a couple of years before going dry-sump. With hindsight I expect that very careful mounting and routing/secureing of the hoses along with VERY careful handling of the unions when things are assembled should reduce the likelihood of problems Good Luck!

I know how you feel FWIW I never did chop it in half, keep at it and you'll get the knack