Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Excellent recommendation Peter. Will look closely when I disassemble and reassemble the hub. Thanks!

Finally got all the rear suspension and differential off. Started cleaning various parts and painting. Long weekend ahead so I expect to make some progress

Great thread just watched the time lapse you two won't need to spend time at the gym you must have cover miles moving around the elan. keep up the good work.

Spent the day removing the rest of the suspension and steering rack on the old chassis. Cleaning original parts for painting and chasing down high grade bolts/nuts/washers (#8) for the rebuild. There are a mixture of SAE and metric bolts/nuts on this car plus lots of stripped threads and worn nuts so I am constantly needing to get new SAE bolts/nuts/washers.

Started putting new parts on the new 26R chassis. Ran into a problem right away, seems the new lotocones I bought don't fit. The "ears" are too big and the bolt holes don't line up with the threaded hole on the chassis. The old ones fit perfectly. I wonder if I need to grind the metal a bit to make them fit?

Some photos from the day:
New day for parts removal on old chassis

Painting front suspension pieces

Finished removing the steering rack with front hubs attached

New differential mounts from TTR

AVO front coil overs - fast road setup

Full day again today. My friend Drew was able to help and thank goodness as the removal of the shock tubes was most difficult (it took 3 hours for both). You need a torch and a press to remove them. We moved from my shop to his to do this as he had more appropriate equipment and we needed his lathe to lap the hubs to the TTR hubshafts. The differential bearings, seals and TTR shaft replacement went without a problem. Also got the steering rack back on, the anti-roll bar and front calipers. I am replacing most of the bolts, nuts and washers with grade 8 during the rebuild.

My rebuilt engine is in the final assembly mode and being dyno tuned this week. The plan is to pick it up later in the week which means the engine and transmission will go back in this weekend.

I might actually be able to achieve my 3 week rebuild plan. The clock is ticking........

Some photos:

The photos above are out of order, but I'm too tired to fix it. Here are some more photos out of order

Great pics and story. Keep 'em coming. The oxy/acy torch would be more appropriate. Propane simply
isn't enough heat for the area needed to heat.

You are certainly making amazing progress ! - a couple of comments

Pulling the rear wheel hub with a 3 leg pulley will often bend the hub. You may have been lucky but check it to make sure the wheel still runs true.

Your a braver man than I to hold a hub while you spin the shaft in a lathe, I would worry about my fingers if it jammed . I lap in by hand as both safer and you get a better result with an oscillation motion with constant removal and re-seating just like lapping in a valve on its seat. Constant single direction rotation can generate grooves in the hub and on the shaft if your not careful.

cheers
Rohan

Rohan, good points. The hubs came off without much force but I will check them again (they spun true on the lathe). Yes, lapping the shaft on the lathe could be problematic but it turned out fine. We were careful about grooves on the shaft.

Got my new shock tubes from TTR. I'm following the suggestions of putting the tubes in the freezer overnight and will heat up the bearing carrier in my propane outdoor grill as it will easily get to 325 degrees F. I am doubtful they will just "drop in" so I'm prepared to provide a bit of force with a block of wood and a large hammer (carefully).

Will also be careful regarding which bearing goes where as there are two different sizes for the bearing housing.

Excellent posting above, but I was confused because I seemed to have read the above message before but with less detail

So I looked and I had...

Just a little tip: It helps the consistency of the forum if you include crosslinks when you post on the same matter in more than one topic. Well at least it helps me, to know that I'm not going potty yet.

Your other message is in:
lotus-suspension-f42/removing-rear-dampers-t34204-30.html

Thanks Bill. You are absolutely correct. Will make note of referencing crosslinks!

PS:

I've found you a chart of melting points of metal:
http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/melti ... d_860.html
deg C DegF
Aluminum 660 1220
Aluminum Alloy 463 - 671 865 - 1240
Aluminum Bronze 600 - 655 1190 - 1215


You might want to practice on some unwanted bits of Alloy to see if you can actually melt them so that you can avoid that disaster.

As mentioned before, you get no warning. It just suddenly get a darkish skin, but by then it is too late and the alloy 'runs away' under the skin.

Excellent Bill! Now I know for sure I'm not even going to be close to melting the bearing carrier. I don't have a piece of unwanted bearing carrier (I assume a test is only valid using same material cast in same time period) so it will be an experiment.

My friend Drew and I where talking this weekend about heating the entire bearing carrier in the oven when we both agreed that our wives are great cooks and the potential for ruining the house ovens with oil and grease smells would not go over well. That's when I thought of using the outdoor grill.

Bearing carriers on the barbeque this weekend! Yum

billwill wrote:PS:

I've found you a chart of melting points of metal:
http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/melti ... d_860.html
.

Magnesium alloy from 350 C

Certified Lotus wrote:Rohan, good points. The hubs came off without much force but I will check them again (they spun true on the lathe). Yes, lapping the shaft on the lathe could be problematic but it turned out fine. We were careful about grooves on the shaft.

Got my new shock tubes from TTR. I'm following the suggestions of putting the tubes in the freezer overnight and will heat up the bearing carrier in my propane outdoor grill as it will easily get to 325 degrees F. I am doubtful they will just "drop in" so I'm prepared to provide a bit of force with a block of wood and a large hammer (carefully).

Will also be careful regarding which bearing goes where as there are two different sizes for the bearing housing.

Block of wood and a hammer is not ideal!! Tried that way many years ago and it nearly ended in tears, If possible find some one with a decent press you can use