S1 Elan Rebuild - My Story

[Chancer]

The bushes are not being made to the original tol?rances which took into account the interference fit into the crankshaft.

Back in the day I fitted scores of pilot bushes and never needed to ream a single one of them.

A tip for those that might not know, to remove an old pilot bush or bearing fill it with grease, engage slightly into the bore a first motion shaft or a close fitting clutch alignment tool and whack it home with a hammer, hydraulic pressure will back out the bush.

Its a bit messier with a pilot bearing and a thicker grease helps but it works equally well.

[Certified Lotus]

Short day today. Only had 6 hours and a large list of things to do before fitting the chassis to the body.

Was focused on getting the gearbox bracket located properly on the chassis to drill the holes and install the blots, washers & locknuts. I looked at both the manuals I have to see what they say about the alignment of the engine/gearbox to the drive shaft/differential and didn't find much. It interesting that the drive shaft crosses the inside of the chassis at an angle. Never the less, everything is bolted up properly and the alignment is as close as its going to get. So drill away!

Alignment of Drive Shaft

Drive Shaft inside chassis

Gear box bracket bolted to chassis

Next came the install of the clutch slave cylinder. Made a note to fabricate a heat shield for this.

Clutch slave cylinder

Installed oil blow by tube and bolted to the gear box. If this was going to be a track car I would have routed to a catch can.

Oil tube

The starter motor came next. I had purchased a gear reduction motor to match the aluminum flywheel I had installed.

Starter motor

And a modern alternator instead of the old style generator was installed. Once everything was bolted up I thought the turnbuckle was not the right adjustment device to use as it got in the way of a number of pieces of the engine and would not adjust properly. My friend Drew can fabricate almost anything and I got him to make a template of an adjustable bracket to replace the turnbuckle.

alternator installed

template for custom bracket

Next came the headers. TTR supplied them and then I had them Jet Hot ceramic coated.

TTR Headers

Topped up the gear box and differential using Red Line oil. It's all starting to look good.

TC Engine

[rgh0]

You appear to be missing the spacers under the gearbox mount

cheers
Rohan

[Certified Lotus]

You appear to be missing the spacers under the gearbox mount

cheers
Rohan

Thanks Rohan! My original car didn't have these spacers but now that you point it out I see a photo of them in Bucklands manual. I had wondered if the new mounts eliminated the need for these. Guess not. Another part to order.........

I can't tell you all how much I appreciate this forum! It's great to have a number of you looking over my shoulder and giving advise.

Glen

[CBUEB1771]

You should not have had to drill the chassis for the gearbox mount bracket. The chassis should have nuts welded to the upper face of its bottom flange for this purpose. The weld nuts make it possible to remove/install the gearbox bracket without lifting the body.

[Vic]

Russ,

The last 26R chassis I purchased from TTR was also missing the welded nuts for the transmission cross member. I will be using steel nut-certs (since the chassis was already painted). My other TTR 26R chassis (a couple of years older) came with the welded nuts.

Vic

[Certified Lotus]

Russ and Vic, there where no holes drilled in my chassis for the gearbox mount. My old chassis had nuts welded to the chassis, but not the new one.

[Certified Lotus]

My friend Bruce was at my house yesterday with his Red S2 and one of my son's had this brilliant idea to photograph the almost completed Elan chassis I am building next to Bruce's car.

Of course we couldn't help having some fun along the way!

Red Elan S2 & Elan 26R chassis

Another view

Waiting to have a body

Can't wait to be on the road!

[lance54]

Great minds think alike......

Nice work on your restoration.

[Certified Lotus]

Lance54, I like your photo better! A track Elan next to a restored road chassis with engine. You have my vote!

Glen

[lance54]

Glen,

You have been entertaining us for weeks with your restoration.....and perhaps encouraging some to get started with a needed restoration. Thanks for sharing your work with the ElanNet world.

PM sent.

Clark Lance

[lance54]

Glen,

Email me if like.

[email protected]

Clark Lance

[CBUEB1771]

You appear to be missing the spacers under the gearbox mount

I have been thinking about this one with the benefit of an S1/S2/Coupe Service Parts List. Your Elan might never have been fitted with spacers between the gearbox mounting bracket and the compliant mount. The tail housing of your gearbox has the two "ear" attachment configuration for the compliant mount. This differs from the wedge shaped attachment "boss" of the later gearboxes. The early Service Parts List suggests that you should have either no spacers or a single piece of flat bar stock (guessing at 1/4" thick) for a spacer. You should also have the early type of gearbox mount bracket which has a length of square mechanical tubing welded across the top, to which the compliant mount is attached. This earlier type of bracket has a greater height than the later ones. I suspect that the spacers made from round bar stock (approx. 3/4" tall) are only used with the later bracket. I started to dig into this this when I noticed that the part number for the round bar stock spacers has an 050 prefix denoting first use on the +2. The early Service Parts List is interesting because it lists two tail housings, each with different associated mounting brackets. One is for the close ratio gearbox and the other is for the "rally ratio" gearbox. The flat bar stock spacer is only used with the "rally ratio" gearbox and bracket. Unfortunately this Service Parts List does not otherwise distinguish the close ratio gearbox from the "rally ratio" gearbox.

[elancoupe]

You appear to be missing the spacers under the gearbox mount

I have been thinking about this one with the benefit of an S1/S2/Coupe Service Parts List. Your Elan might never have been fitted with spacers between the gearbox mounting bracket and the compliant mount. The tail housing of your gearbox has the two "ear" attachment configuration for the compliant mount. This differs from the wedge shaped attachment "boss" of the later gearboxes. The early Service Parts List suggests that you should have either no spacers or a single piece of flat bar stock (guessing at 1/4" thick) for a spacer. You should also have the early type of gearbox mount bracket which has a length of square mechanical tubing welded across the top, to which the compliant mount is attached. This earlier type of bracket has a greater height than the later ones. I suspect that the spacers made from round bar stock (approx. 3/4" tall) are only used with the later bracket. I started to dig into this this when I noticed that the part number for the round bar stock spacers has an 050 prefix denoting first use on the +2. The early Service Parts List is interesting because it lists two tail housings, each with different associated mounting brackets. One is for the close ratio gearbox and the other is for the "rally ratio" gearbox. The flat bar stock spacer is only used with the "rally ratio" gearbox and bracket. Unfortunately this Service Parts List does not otherwise distinguish the close ratio gearbox from the "rally ratio" gearbox.

Russ is correct, there are 2 types of tailshaft housings. When I redid my close ratio box, I fitted it with a later style housing to utilize the more common mount.

[Certified Lotus]

Well, you now have me wondering if I have all the right parts for my gear box mount Russ. Need to go back and re-review everything to determine. I'm talking a break from my rebuild. Have some video projects waiting to be done that I have been ignoring so I'll get those done and then come back to my Elan.

I'll be back with updates in a couple of weeks