It’s been a few weeks since the Lotus last stranded me. The clutch would not disengage. Now I realize why and it just now occurred to me that I could have gotten myself home had I known what I now know about that subsystem of the car.

Several revelations attended the repair that I have undertaken.

Honestly, I didn’t know for certain how all the parts worked together despite the manual. Now I do. The problem that day was dry gummy grease on the slide shaft that the release bearing of the clutch moves along. If I had sprayed wd-40 in there maybe I could have gotten the clutch to engage and disengage well enough to get me home. I’d have still needed to do the repair, but it would have saved me the expense of a tow.

First revelation:

The bottom third of the bell housing was cut back three quarters of an inch in and  six inches or so up like a wedge. I thought it was a butcher job (nicely done, but still) by a previous owner. Since then other type 54 owners have reported that their bell housings are also cut back.

This is a Series 2 vehicle, but it’s early. The later bell housings for the type 65 have a different mount configuration with two bolts at the bottom rather than one bolt in the center. My guess is that the factory used up all the Series 1 bell housings and rather than cast more, the new Series 2 bell housings for the larger motor were modified at the factory to work with the remaining vehicles that carried the 1470cc motor. It was an inventory utilization matter.

Meanwhile, before discovering this, I had already installed a repair and was looking for a replacement bell housing.

Next up was the realization that whoever took it upon themselves to paint the trans axle was not particularly diligent. I doubt they used a self etching primer and their thoroughness in removing oil, debris, and oxidation from the case was abysmal.

So I cleaned, scraped, sanded, and buffed it for paint. I’ve brought it in doors so that it will be warm enough to do this job now rather than wait till summer and do it outside. Por-15 will allow me to brush the paint on.

I discovered that someone had done the crime of painting atop rust. Dang it. I’m properly addressing that.

And the pivot arm bushing is now mine to replace. Whoever did the rejuvination of the car apparently found it too daunting. It can be, but I am doing it.

Now the Por-15 and surface prep have arrived, so I can paint.

Note the way I covered the closing plates: tuna can lid

I don’t dare fill the transmission with gear oil until it’s in the car. I think whoever opened it up did a lousy job of sealing the leaky joints.