This page shows the progress and work done on the Lotus Europa in the year 2010.
Newest date on top

Late summer/autumn 2010 What can I say? I did take the car into use, but discovered serious oil leak from the gearbox.
Fitted new oil seal to the input shaft, still leaked.

After some discussion on the Yahoo Europa group, the solution came clear: a bearing was missing from the center of the flywheel, into which the input shaft to the gearbox would rest when the clutch was disengaged.
Fitted the bearing, and voila, no leak !

This was in the middle of August, and I took several testrides with the car, and started to enjoy it more and more.
Found a few more faukts to correct, this will be done during the winter:
- Fix the petrol gauge - Fix the temp sender or instrument - Fit new carb with choke (yepp, it?s cold in Norway) - Fit the last carpets to the feetpart of the cockpit - Make the heater work - Adjust gear change mechanism (1st and 2nd gear is hard to engage, rest is fine)

Had the autumns last ride in the car on Oct 24st. A temperature of 8 deg Celcious below zero, and no heater.. Freeeeeeezing cold. So, now the car is in the garage for the winter, and hopefully (?) the iterms mentioned above will be fixed before mid-April and season of 2011.

A big thanks to all the guys on the Europa list for their patient and clever answers to all my stupid question during the latest 12 years?..

May 23rd,
2010
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

The testdrive!!!
Got the car licensed two weeks ago, but as the electrical oil pressure gauge didn't work, I decided to rebuild it into mechanical reading.
Thanks to Steve Veries from the Lotus Europa Yahoo mailing list, I got the correct parts. These were fitted yesterday, and I took the car for a short spin.
At a local petrolstation, I discovered petrol pouring from the tank when filling :-(

So, I rode back home, just to find that it was leaking from where the petrol gauge is connected.
Took the petrol tank out this morning, tightened the gauge - and tested that it was not leaking. Remounted the tank, filled a few liters of petrol - and took another testride. The REAL testride, this time :-)
Stopped at the same petrol station, and filled more petrol - no leak this time.
Therefor; took the chance of a 10 km testride.

Everything worked just perfect, though after a few kilometers I felt the smell of 'warm rustproofing oil' Guess this is due to my internal treating the chassis - and when the heating hoses get warm, the oil kind of 'melt'. Hope this will disappear...

A few pictures from todays work can be found here.

I'm a very happy man today. Nearly 12 years after the car was bought from Phile Newey Sports Cars of La Habra, California (and was told to be in 'near mint condition' and 'used as a daily driver'), I finally took the first ride. It's been a long and winding road, with many hard days night's, but finally I'm at the finish line.
Now I will use the car as much as possible, and correct the faults I guess will appear - as soon as I discover them.

Two videoes from the first ever testride
Sorry for speaking norwegian, but video was made for private use...

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Jan - May 2010 Nothing much has happened, really.
Have had several attempts to get the car licensed - every time there has been some paper missing. Finally, on May 7th 2010 the control station finally accepted my papers, and the car got it license. Now I'll have to wait for parts, to rebuild the oil pressure gauge to mechanical reading.

 

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