The Lotus Grand Tourers

Looks great Tony! What paint did you use on the diff?

Pete

What paint did you use on the diff?

POR15 Gloss black. Mighty expensive but went on so nicely and virtually looks like powder coated finish.
Dried rock hard within 24 hours which most paints I've used in the past don't do. Shame no one will see it other than the MOT guy once a year.

MetBlue wrote: Thu Aug 08, 2024 19:47 Shame no one will see it other than the MOT guy once a year.

Looks good
You’re going to have to carry a mirror around with you to put on the floor so they can see it !!!!

Back in April, I was posting about improvements to performance after checking and correcting the jetting.

Recently starting got a bit more troublesome, resulting at one point in it refusing to go, even a few hours later. Tried swopping most of the electrical spark side and still no go. Next day it just started again as normal. Confidence now completely destroyed - again !!!

10 days ago I just needed to do something to try and track a fault, so started with a full dizzy strip. All as good as when rebuilt last year. No problem there.
Then moved on to the carbs and checked Float levels, float valves etc ( Didn't check this back in April as most jets can be accessed just by removing the top cap).
Jets all correct and good, but float level was 17mm on both carbs. Spec is 15mm, - ( 17mm is correct for the much earlier spec engines).

Reset to 15mm and what a difference that 2mm makes
Starting - Brilliant and Instant - Hot or cold. - Just show a turn of the key and she's purring away.
Cornering - At 17mm, push hard into a roundabout ( Turning right) and I'd get momentary fuel starvation and hesitation. Came back after a fraction of a second but frustrating non the less. Reset to 15mm and gone completely
2K hesitation - Was still present even after fitting slightly larger idle jet holders, but now with a bit more fuel in the bowls, as good as gone completely.

What a difference 2mm makes

This car just keeps on getting better and better.

Tony

Well done on your fix, & thanks for taking the time to write the post. I never tire of reading this forum & learning about my car.

MetBlue wrote: Tue Sep 03, 2024 18:12.

What a difference 2mm makes

Tony

Said the actress to the bishop

Cool that it keeps getting better.
Have you checked the height of the fuel in the carb ?

Quick fix time - When I did the roof lining a couple of years ago, I might have been a bit mean on the contact adhesive at the rear:

Just couldn't keep it up.
Bought some 6mm dia soft closed cell rubber section and pushed into the gap at window top


Works a treat.

It's taken nearly a year for me to prioritise the diff and bush replacement, but finally made a start yesterday.
Was hoping the diff could be removed without a major strip down of the rear suspension, but now with diff floating free, I've concluded it MAY just be possible if you have a ramp, diff jack and at least one further pair of hands, but with the car only 18" off the ground at the rear, it's pretty much impossible. Very close, but not close enough.
So over the weekend, at least the top links and Y- Yoke will be coming out again.
This job is almost on a par with Steering Rack removal

If I lived nearer to you I would give you a hand, the diff in mine has been up and down like a brides nighty over the years, all laid on the floor ( oh err missis). Getting it back in is the hard bit ( err ,? ) lining up the bolts.

Bash
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to swear lots when doing it on your own (insert innuendo here)

Just in case anyone is interested - I'm making enquiries in the near future as to the cost of making crown wheel and pinion assemblies for the Toyota diff, since numerically lower ratios are so hard to come by. I'll be seeing the gear cutting company soon.

Pete

Keep me in the loop please.
Toyota used to put a 3.3 in thier 2wd pickups in the 80s but they are rocking horse poo rare.

Bash

What would you say would be a good ratio Bash - as a V8 owner? What have you got at the moment?

Sorry for the thread hijack Tony!

Pete

Pete Boole wrote: Fri Jul 18, 2025 10:00 Just in case anyone is interested - I'm making enquiries in the near future as to the cost of making crown wheel and pinion assemblies for the Toyota diff, since numerically lower ratios are so hard to come by. I'll be seeing the gear cutting company soon.

Pete

If we know what other toyota platforms use the same diff - such as the pickups, cant we use them? Is this 5.4 a goer?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/387230096338 ... R87g052EZg

Numerically high means low ratio, good for a rock crawler.
As for a v8 ratio, in my case its lower revs at motorway speeds that is interesting. If anyone isnt aware Im using the standard toyota gearbox on my rover v8. I started with the standard ratio, very fast on acceleration but too high a revs for a v8. I went to 3.7, auto spec diff, which was better and then I managed to get a 3.56 from one of our trusted members (a ratio never available in the standard diff) Acceleration doesnt seem to have been affected probably because of the v8 torque but it has brought the revs down when crusing considerably. At a speedo indicated 52 mph Im actually doing 60, and fuel consumption when cruising is pretty good at least matching an excel standard engine in that I can get 30mpg on a run.
My 390 TVR had a 3.01 diff ( salisbury) so you can go pretty low. Some SD1 rovers were lower than that although Ive forgotten what the gearbox output ratio was on the SD1 Lt77 manual box. But pete it depends what the output is on your 8 speed auto box so its hard to recommend a ratio in your case but it will be interesting to see what sort of a price they come up because the actual ratio is just settings on the cnc machine.

Bash

Pete Boole wrote: Fri Jul 18, 2025 10:00 Just in case anyone is interested - I'm making enquiries in the near future as to the cost of making crown wheel and pinion assemblies for the Toyota diff, since numerically lower ratios are so hard to come by. I'll be seeing the gear cutting company soon.

Pete

Is there enough thickness in the crown wheel? The crown wheel diameter is pretty well fixed, so the pinion has to grow in size and something has to move.