Back to the E9 nose

With the Lotus back on the road I can once again turn my attention to the subject of this blog. But time is running out on the van. It needs a new belt idler pulley and again the fans are not coming on. I'll try to do those things at home.

Before I went to the shop I checked here to see what I had last done on the E9. My starting point was sanding down the filler applied at the end of the last session. So many weeks have passed that I had to wash the nose down with soap and water to prevent grinding oily dirt into what I sanding.

The good news is that after a lot of sanding I finally started to feel the contours emerge. This is hard to explain. You start with rust or collision damaged sheet metal, cut holes, weld patches. It is a mess. As the fillers go on and are shaped, something special happens. The long, smooth contours of the original panel begin to emerge. Sanding is not just about smoothing, it is about exposing the original shape.

At the end of the session I could feel this happening. Many contrasting layers and colors of paint and filler interfere with the discovery, so I ended the session with a coat of etching primer. I will try to stop in one afternoon and shoot some sanding primer on top, to make next Saturday more productive.

posted from Bloggeroid

New cooling fan relay for the van

My 97 Dodge Caravan, the rolling paint locker, had its cooling fans stop working. Since both went out at the same time I figured it was the relay. The relay is located under the air cleaner box, bolted to the frame for better cooling.

The first air box attaches with two bolts. The second part attaches to the third with two spring clips. The last part attaches to the frame with one bolt at the top; two pins fit into holes at the bottom.

The only hard part was removing the connector. When these get old the nifty spring lock piece usually breaks, and this one did. Easier to remove the connector after removing the relay from the frame.

posted from Bloggeroid

Happy New Year!

Despite taking some time off these past two weeks have been crazy busy. I did spend some time working on the Caravan's windshield wipers, but no work on the E9. With New Year's Day falling on Saturday I doubt anything will get done for another week.

I am writing this on my Android phone using a blogger app called Bloggeroid. It uses Picasa to store photos, which will require me to change my habits. I'll see how it goes.
















The initial problem was the motor not working. It was slow and noisy when I installed it last year. This time it was sitting in a pool of water -- the drains for the plastic tub were plugged. While replacing the motor I discovered that the ball joint at the end of the crank was really stiff. Maybe that is why the last motor was so noisy.

Nobody has a suitable replacement ... the dealer did not know what parts I would need, so I took it apart, cleaned it, and greased it up with axle grease. Still not put back together.

Also need to fix the van's radiator fans.