Thought an update - 12 months on - may be of interest.
Can’t believe another year has slipped by. On a first look back at my last update I thought that I hadn’t achieved much despite probably spending 3 or 4 hours a week tinkering!
The suspension and brakes look the same although I have just this morning finished reinstalling the steering column and glad to say the rack seems to be moving nicely with no unwanted noises.
A lot of time was spent on the wiring - on reflection it would probably have saved time and money if I had just replaced the front loom as I have replaced at least 75% of the original wiring in the engine bay. The S4 wiring diagram in the Technical section of the forum was very useful - I enlarged it onto 4 or 5 sheets of A4 and laminated the copies which were easy to read and use. I fitted a fuse box in place of the regulator to replace the old 2 fuse system [photo attached]. This provides seperate fusing for the main circuits. I have added relays for the window motors. Had problems with replacing the original battery - 3 new batteries from my local motor shop leaked! I therefore fitted the Odyssey PC680 as suggested in previous posts and this fits neatly on the battery tray.
I am hoping my new earthing circuit will sort out dim indicators, slow wipers etc once and for all! I took inspiration from my ham radio days when earthing for antennae was very important. As others have suggested I have made a “ring circuit”. I bought several junction boxes autosparks.co.uk/product_inf … ts_id=1576 and ran a main earth cable to each and then attached individual earths to each component. Brian Buckland suggest earthing the battery via a cable to the passenger side rear upright [where the bracing strap between the 2 uprights bolts] which I did. I made up earth leads from battery cable and ran to junction boxes as follow:
1, from drivers side rear upright to junction box in boot - the rear lights and petrol sender earth to this - does away with the very unsatisfactory original earth point to the chassis in the boot well.
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from chassis bolt that mounts lower dash bracket to earth instruments, wiper motor and door motors.
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from each front suspension body securing bolt - for earthing the lights, horn etc.
The advantage is that one doesn’t have to undo the large earth cables every time that you disconnect something. Each earth from the components has its own 8mm ring terminal which is simply attached to the junction box post. I’ve attached a photo of the front passenger side engine bay junction box.
I have fitted a gear reduction starter motor so don’t need the solenoid. I have left this in place and run a live feed to another junction box by the fuse box. Each of the live circuits is then fed from the junction box to the fuse box.
I have also replaced most of the bullet connectors behind the dash with simple plug connectors, They are much easier to connect and disconnect - and also less likely to become detached. There is a photo of the dash below which shows several of the connectors. autosparks.co.uk/product_inf … ts_id=1765
So not a bad twelve months! All I need to do now is to connect up the brakes, find a new Weber backplate and then refit the carbs, new radiator and thats it. Oh - and just the respray and retrim. You will see from then photo of the front of the car that the paintwork hasn’t improved and the interior is a little bare.
Season greetings to everyone and thanks for all the tips and advice over the year.
Richard
PS just read the Evo article mentioned elsewhere and like the sentiments “The Elan is properly quick, both in a straight line and carving across the scenery”. This has spurred me on to get finished and get behind the wheel and tackle some bendy country roads!