Slow night tonight on the Forum.

I used a allen socket easily, I hear about grinding down allen wrenches and the like often here on the forum, but mine must be a strange one because I have never had an issue with it. There was one bolt though on the vacuum pump that I used a few long extensions and a swivel adapter and it goes rearward and downward to loosen it, I think thats the one I keep hearing about, instead of making it shorter I extended the extensions for more space to crank on it.

Mpesik, an assortment of tools are a godsend when working on the Esprit. I usually have the same tool in different brands, Craftsman, Snap On, Channel lock, etc. I have found over the years that different brands of tools have different thickness, shorter or longer handles, and alot of times with will get you out of a bind easily. I work as a repair guy though, so tools are my bread and butter, I never have a problem spending money on them, they are an investment in me. My wife likes to go to flea markets, and I usually go along because it never surprises me what tools I can find there cheap, alot of people have no idea what tools are for what, or what they cost new, especially alot of specific job kinda tools.

Cheap tools are great too, because if you need a one time use tool, you can modify it like grind it down, drill it out or whatever you have to do to make it work, and then you are not out alot of money if you destroy it. I do this alot when I weld something together, destroy my cheap assortment of tools, and save the good ones for proper things.

amanda11270 said:

Mpesik, an assortment of tools are a godsend when working on the Esprit. I usually have the same tool in different brands, Craftsman, Snap On, Channel lock, etc. I have found over the years that different brands of tools have different thickness, shorter or longer handles, and alot of times with will get you out of a bind easily. I work as a repair guy though, so tools are my bread and butter, I never have a problem spending money on them, they are an investment in me. My wife likes to go to flea markets, and I usually go along because it never surprises me what tools I can find there cheap, alot of people have no idea what tools are for what, or what they cost new, especially alot of specific job kinda tools.

Cheap tools are great too, because if you need a one time use tool, you can modify it like grind it down, drill it out or whatever you have to do to make it work, and then you are not out alot of money if you destroy it. I do this alot when I weld something together, destroy my cheap assortment of tools, and save the good ones for proper things.

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Well said! I just did the clutch master cylinder...to get to the bracket bolt on the brake MC I used 2 old box-end wrenches that had slightly different orientations of the "nubs". I could just get it 1/24th turn with one wrench, then switched to the other for another 1/24th...took a while. Also had to bend a 13mm and angle-grind it thinner to get the bolt behind the outlet port on the clutch MC (needed to re-adjust the actuator shaft after it was bled and didn't want to undo the hose).

Always a challenge with this car but that's what makes it interesting...multiply the time a job would take on a typical car by 5. I feel lucky if I can touch any given bolt that needs to be removed, REALLY lucky if I can touch it AND see it.

A couple things I've learned:

The entire interior is built around the heater core...It was the first thing installed and it will be the last thing you will be able to remove.

To change the right front marker bulb you will need to partially disassemble the ABS system (RHD).

It MAY be necessary to remove the engine to adjust the latch on the driver's door (seriously, drop the back plate and you'll probably need to remove the tank to get it, tank won't come out without removing the engine).

petemon said:

It MAY be necessary to remove the engine to adjust the latch on the driver's door (seriously, drop the back plate and you'll probably need to remove the tank to get it, tank won't come out without removing the engine).

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Engine removal not necessary. You just need a slightly stronger magnet to retrieve the plate. rotfl