As lady luck would have it, I got an offer this week for my (non lbc) driver,
which I coudln't refuse. If had gotten this offer only a week ago, it might
have stopped me from selling the RR ;-) The couple who bought the truck
stopped by and picked it up Sunday... Then it hit me, no car to commute in
Tuesday unless I get the DMC back on the road (some of you might remember
that I had the rear suspension out and apart for a rebuild.) I could use
my '67 Detroit iron, but her rear end is making a noise which I haven't
looked into yet... The DMC is the best bet, even in pieces.
Luckily my local auto shop was open on Labor day (a car fanatic owns
the place). Unfortunately he does not stock shocks for a DMC (there
is a Girling replacement for the original Bilstiens, but not much
call for them in a town of 900 people) So I decided the original shocks
would go back on for awhile. On the advice of another SOL, I had sent a
friend to his local airport (he flies for a hobby) to locate some aircraft
grade bolts for my trailing arms. An interesting thing I found while
disassembling the trailing arms, was the fuel filter. It was bolted to
left trailing arm. The fuel line comes from the tank (which sits in the
forward wishbone of the frame) to the electonic pump (knuckle busting
close to my clutch slave cylinder) down the backbone, and out into the
trailing arm. The filter is held onto the trailing arm by a cobbled up
hose clamp and bolt. I would have sworn this was POS, but I'm the
original owner! The outlet line then comes from the filter up to the fuel
injection system.
Question: Is this a good placement for the filter? Wouldn't the constant
jolting from the trialing arm reap havoc with the sediment? Does the
Lotus setup use this same placement?
Needless to say, I replaced the filter, but did keep it in the original
location for now. The trailing arms went on with a fair amount of sworking
and a few pints, but by Monday night, everything was neatly buttoned back in
place (New brakes included).
On the drive to work this morning I noticed that my speedo needle was swinging
wildly about. After around 30 miles (I commute 65 each way) the speedo
calmed down and started working fine. The DMC uses the same speedo setup
as the Esprit. Front angle drive driven off the left front wheel cap,
lower speedo cable to the fire wall, then an upper cable from the
Lambda counter to the speedo.
Question: Where should I look? Cable lubrication, worn speedo? bad
angle drive?
I've replaced the angle drive once, when it failed I lost the speedo,
it did not behave like today's episode. I also replaced the lower
speedo cable when it broke. same symptoms as the angle drive. (I'll see
how it behaves on the way home tonight). Needless to say, when you drive
a small sports car through some revenue hungry back woods towns, you'd
best have a speedometer =8-O "Honestly officer, it's british, and I
haven't fixed it yet !"
Well despite the speedo problem, it felt good to have the DMC back on
the road. I'm considering bringing it to the Colorado British Motoring
Conclave. Do you suppose they would let a British Designed (and funded)
Irish built, Italian bodied, Murican sports car into the show????
Regards,
Scott (which mailing list do I belong on anyway?) Currier
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