Lotus - Not the carbs

It's rough only having three hours to work Saturday morning. The last time the Lotus ran poorly it was one carb -- the rear one -- with a stuck air piston. The difference was that this time it quit cold, while last time it limped along on two cylinders.

I pulled the spark plugs and they all looked wet. #1 looked especially bad, but not terrible. I cleaned them up but I'll look for new ones this week. N7Y.

I went through the Zenith Stromberg carburetors and they look perfect. Pistons dropped without sticking, no tears in the diaphragms. Definite odor of gas on the needles. Very clean.

In order to use the shop's remote starter switch I had to make an extension out of a quick disconnect terminal, because the Denso starter has a male terminal inside a hard plastic housing where the alligator clip on the switch couldn't reach. I should buy one and modify it. Anyway, without plugs the starter turned nicely on the car battery.

I stuck a phillips screwdriver into the #1 spark plug lead, held it close to one of the cam cover studs, and cranked. No spark. There was not enough time to raise the rear end, set TDC and tear into the distributor, so I gave it a quick wash, pushed it back outside and put on the cover. Besides, it could be the vintage 70's MSD box. Or the tach wiring. The coil. It's all about elimination, one step at a time.

It was not until later this evening that I realized that I forgot to turn on the ignition switch while checking for spark. Doh! Fooled by the remote starter. So the spark status is still undetermined.